'ERMAN 
EPUBLIC 


VAETER.  WELLMAN 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 


THE    GERMAN 
REPUBLIC 


BY 

WALTER  WELLMAN 

o4  *%. 


NEW  YORK 

E.  P.  BUTTON  &  COMPANY 

681  FIFTH  AVENUE 


( 


COPTKIOHT,   1916, 
BT 

E.  P.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 


All  Rights  of  Translation  into  Foreign  Languages  (including 
the  Scandinavian)  Reserved  by  the  Publishers 


PRINTED  IN  THE  U.  S.  A. 


CK 


Wo 
(Etie  4lerman  people 

WHOM    THE    WORLD    HAS    LOVED 

AND 
IN  WHOM  THE  WORLD  STILL  HAS  FAITH 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    Teutonic  Patriotism,  Unity,  Valor  9 
II.     The  Tribe  Unconquerable  and  Un- 

CONQUERING            22 

III.  The    Mightiest   Movement   of   the 

War       29 

IV.  Opened  Eyes 39 

V.     The  German  Political  Reformation  52 

VI.     A  Place  in  the  Sun? — Or  in  a  Mad- 
house?         70 

VII.     What  Method  in  the  Madness?    .  84 

VIII.     German    Manhood    Speaks    to    the 

World        104 

IX.     A  Special  Word  to  America     .    .    .  116 

X.    Founding  the  German  Republic      .  133 

XI.     The  Great,  Gentle  Revolution    .    .  168 

XII.     The  Treaty  of  Universal  Peace    .    .  174 

XIII.  The  Forward  March  of  Civilization  181 

XIV.  Germany    at    Last    Conquers    the 

World 190 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

CHAPTER  I 

TEUTONIC    PATRIOTISM,    UNITY,    VALOE 

After  the  outbreak  of  the  Great  War,  in 
1914,  the  world  saw  the  finest  example  of 
national  patriotism  and  unity  recorded  in 
all  the  pages  of  history. 

For  defense  of  Fatherland  against  a  foe 
who  nearly  surrounded  them  the  Ger- 
man people  rose  as  one  man  with  a  single 
aim. 

Individualism  at  once  became  as  noth- 
ing, the  nation  everything.  Upon  the  al- 
tar of  country  all  Germans  were  ready  to 
lay  their  all. 

Every  call  of  government  for  service  and 
9 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

sacrifice  met  with  instant,  hearty  response. 
Millions  of  Germans  went  to  the  front. 
They  went  with  joy,  their  fathers,  moth- 
ers, wives,  children,  sent  them  with  pride. 

As  soldiers  they  roused  the  admiration 
of  the  world,  including  their  enemies. 
Their  valor,  their  efficiency,  their  disci- 
pline, their  power  to  endure,  suffer, 
achieve,  became  a  model  for  all  mankind. 

Its  like  on  so  great  a  scale,  such  out- 
pouring of  the  spirit  of  national  devotion 
on  the  part  of  seventy  millions  of  people, 
was  never  before  seen. 

Germans  dwelling  in  other  lands  were 
swept  along  with  the  flood  of  nationalism. 
Not  only  were  their  sympathies  naturally 
with  Fatherland,  but  so  deep  and  strong 
ran  their  feeling  that  many  of  them  in 
spirit  ceased  to  be  citizens  of  the  coun- 
tries in  which  they  lived  and  in  which  their 
interests  and  future  were  centered,  their 
hearts  and  souls  were  back  beyond  the 
10 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

Rhine  whence  their  blood  had  originally 
come. 

All  German  kind  the  world  over  gave  to 
Fatherland  loyalty  that  was  complete,  ab- 
solute, without  mental  reservation,  ques- 
tion, criticism,  analysis.  To  them  Ger- 
many was  infallible,  could  not  err,  could 
not  blunder;  everything  of  and  for  Ger- 
many was  right,  everything  opposed  to 
Germany  was  wrong. 

This  unity  of  nationalism  was  unprece- 
dented among  modem  peoples  in  that  it 
controlled  not  only  all  individual  action 
and  open  expression  but  apparently  all 
mentality.  All  Germans  everywhere  saw 
with  the  same  eyes,  heard  with  the  same 
ears,  thought  the  same  thoughts,  started 
with  the  same  premises,  followed  the  same 
logical  path,  arrived  at  the  same  conclu- 
sion. 

All  people  of  German  blood  were  typi- 
fied by  one  strong,  stern,  dominant  but  af- 
11 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

f ectionate  German  father  whose  wife,  sons, 
daughters  reverently  looked  up  to  him  for 
wisdom  and  guidance.  The  hundred  mil- 
lions or  more  Germans  scattered  through- 
out the  world  were  one  German  family. 

Mankind  gazed,  admired,  praised,  and 
marvelled,  marvelled  how,  by  what  magic, 
what  secret  charm,  mental  miracle  or  psy- 
chological prestidigitation  this  amazing 
result  had  been  produced. 

The  Greatest  Tribe  in  the  World 

As  the  onlookers  thought  about  this 
most  impressive  human  phenomenon,  and 
tried  to  analyze  and  understand  it  their 
conclusions  in  general  were: 

More  than  any  other  highly  developed 
people  the  Germans  are  pervaded  by  the 
tribal  spirit.  Their  unit  of  organization 
is  the  family,  supreme  authority  at  the 
head,  blind  obedience  below,  one  ruling 
because  he  was  born  to  rule,  the  others 
12 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

obeying  because  they  were  bom  to  obey. 

The  state  is  a  great  tribe,  bom  and  su- 
preme authority  at  its  head,  unquestion- 
ing obedience  and  submission  by  the  mil- 
lions behind  it. 

But  individualism  is  not  suppressed  in 
either  family  or  tribe.  It  would  be  impos- 
sible to  suppress  it  and  at  the  same  time 
produce  a  people  so  virile,  capable,  effi- 
cient, energetic,  educated,  resourceful. 

Individualism  is  encouraged,  developed 
— and  then  systematically  limited.  Every 
member  of  family  or  tribe  is  taught  to  de- 
velop himself,  his  character,  his  talents,  to 
learn,  work,  achieve,  think,  attain  excel- 
leiice,  if  possible,  usefulness  almost  always. 

But  however  successful  he  may  be,  how- 
ever strong  he  may  make  himself,  no  mat- 
ter how  great  his  distinction  and  deserved 
fame  and  influence  in  his  special  field  or 
circle  of  activity,  he  must  never  forget  the 
fundamental  tribal  law  of  limitation,  nor 
13 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

seek  to  go  beyond  it — the  limiting  point 
being  where  individualism  comes  in  con- 
tact with  the  high  authority  the  system  has 
placed  over  it. 

No  other  tribe  in  the  world  has  acquired 
as  the  Germans  have  acquired  and  prac- 
tised this  art  of  building  up  individualism 
with  all  that  goes  naturally  with  it — and 
then  the  dead-line  of  superior  authority 
beyond  which  it  must  not  dare. 

It,  therefore,  stands  out  alone  and  dis- 
tinctive among  the  tribes  of  earth  with 
culture  and  discipline,  character  and  sub- 
missiveness,  genius  and  limitation,  thriv- 
ing side  by  side. 

It  is  a  tribe  with  discipline  as  its  chief 
characteristic,  its  keynote — discipline  in 
the  blood,  in  the  character,  the  habits  of 
the  people — inculcated,  trained,  inherent, 
innate,  universal.  It  starts  in  the  cradle, 
is  in  the  nursery,  the  kindergarten,  the 
smallest  school,  the  greatest  university,  on 
14 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

the  farm,  in  the  small  workshop,  the  great 
factory,  on  the  railway,  the  sea,  in  com- 
merce and  industry,  the  army,  the  navy, 
the  government,  everywhere. 

The  sacredness  of  authority  and  the 
duty  of  submission  thereto  is  a  fetich  in 
this  tribe ;  and  the  higher  the  authority  the 
nearer  it  approaches  to  the  divine  and  ab- 
solute. It  is  more  than  a  fetich,  almost  a 
religion,  almost  a  substitute  for  Infinity. 

And  the  members  of  the  tribe,  even  those 
with  the  most  perfectly  developed  individ- 
ualism, are  content  to  have  it  so,  they  do 
not  wish  to  change  it,  they  love  the  order- 
liness, the  efficiency,  the  machine-like  fit- 
ting of  parts,  every  unit  in  its  place,  and 
all  the  units  working  together  with  most 
effective  synchronism,  which  have  natural- 
ly sprung  from  it. 


15 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

A  Tribal  Rule  Just  and  Wise— A  People 
Content 

It  is  a  tribe  in  which  there  is  not  only 
this  proficient  individualism  stopping 
short  only  at  the  deadline  of  high  author- 
ity, born  or  established,  but  in  authority 
there  is  proficiency,  wisdom,  justice,  worth- 
iness of  the  respect  and  submission  not 
only  exacted  but  freely  given. 

The  paternal  rule  is  strict,  dominant, 
regulatory,  disciplinary,  rigorous,  but  it 
is  at  the  same  time  highly  intelligent,  skill- 
ful, efl&cient,  watchful,  helpful,  truly  pa- 
ternal. It  protects,  nourishes,  upbuilds, 
develops  its  subjects  and  their  works.  It 
is  generally  impartial.  The  weakest  and 
least  proficient  of  its  children  enjoy  its 
alert  care  as  well  as  the  strongest  and 
most  successful. 

In  this  tribe  there  is  little  discontent, 
little  cause  therefor,  few  sullen  or  embit- 
16 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

tered  ones,  little  envy  of  the  luckier,  few 
wolves  even  at  the  humblest  doors,  better 
care  of  the  luckless  and  laggards  than  in 
any  other  of  the  world's  great  tribes. 

It  is  a  tribe  in  which  inevitably  indi- 
vidualism has  its  most  intensive  develop- 
ment, because  there  the  deadline  of  limita- 
tion rarely  and  only  indirectly  applies,  in 
the  arts,  sciences,  literature,  philosophy, 
pedagogy,  commerce,  industrialism,  and 
in  these  fields  of  endeavor  the  people  pro- 
duce leaders  who  take  high  and  often  first 
rank  in  the  world's  lists. 

But  it  is  a  tribe  in  which  inevitably  the 
development  of  individualism  in  the  field 
of  political  life  is  repressed,  stunted,  nar- 
rowed by  the  fixed  and  immovable  limita- 
tions of  the  system,  for  here  the  deadline 
is  indeed  deadly.  Excellent  administra- 
tors, executives,  large  cogs  in  the  com- 
plex, highly  organized  domestic  machine, 
are  produced  by  the  thousands.  Real 
17 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

statesmen,  moulders  of  policies,  shapers  of 
the  nation,  leaders  of  thought  and  action 
able  to  command  a  following  and  with  this 
strength  exert  influence  in  the  higher  ac- 
tivities of  the  state,  are  not  produced  at 
all.  The  system  does  not  want  them,  does 
not  permit  them. 

The  few  wh9  reach  eminence  in  the  pop- 
ular eye  may  be  able,  adroit,  strong  in 
their  character  and  genius,  but  they  have 
no  strength  of  statesmanship  behind  them, 
no  real  leadership,  no  power,  because  they 
are  put  forward  merely  as  fingers  of  the 
hand  of  preeminence,  the  highest  author- 
ity, which  itself  came  into  being  not  by 
talent,  performance,  tested,  tried,  recog- 
nized fitness,  but  by  birth.  A  great  if  not 
fatal  weakness  of  the  tribal  organization 
is  here.  It  is  a  great  tribe  without  great 
statesmen. 

Not  since  Bismarck  have  the  German 
people  produced  a  political  leader  of  the 
18 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

first  rank,  and  he  was  pushed  aside  by  the 
existing  preeminence,  which  has  taken 
good  care  he  should  never  have  a  succes- 
sor. So  intense  and  overwhelming  is  the 
fetich  of  the  sacredness  of  high  authority, 
the  repression  of  systematized  discipline, 
the  German  people  have  been  quite  content 
not  to  have  any  more  Bismarcks,  and  to 
go  on  indefinitely  with  the  divinely  ap- 
pointed substitute.  Genius  of  the  first  or- 
der they  like  and  put  high  on  the  pedestal 
of  their  homage  in  every  other  field  of 
human  endeavor,  but  they  do  not  care  for 
it  in  their  higher  government,  they  are  con- 
tent to  have  the  ship  of  state  sailed  by 
mediocrity. 

The  internal  organization  of  the  ship  is 
well-nigh  perfect.  Discipline  and  efficiency 
reign  there.  Whither  the  ship  is  going, 
what  is  to  happen  to  her  in  storm  or  stress, 
collision  in  darkness  or  running  upon  the 
rocks  of  a  foreign  shore,  is  no  affair  of  the 
19 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

workers  down  below.  They  simply  obey 
orders.  All  else  they  leave  to  the  high  au- 
thority up  on  the  bridge,  in  which  their 
trust  and  confidence  are  supreme. 

Prosperous,  growing  rich,  content,  gath- 
ering self-assurance  with  augmenting  af- 
fluence, no  serious  thought  has  entered  the 
average  German  mind  of  changing  his 
tribal  system  of  obedience  to  the  higher. 
When  policies  are  framed,  decisions  tak- 
en, orders  given,  no  matter  what  they  are 
or  what  they  involve,  even  the  peace  and 
life  of  the  nation  itself,  the  national  habit 
and  instinct  at  once  respond  with  a  loyal 
completeness  which  excludes  from  the 
mind  all  analysis,  closes  the  mouth  to  all 
criticism,  shuts  the  ears  to  all  murmur- 
ings. 

Attack  a  great  tribe  like  this,  and  what 

is  to  be  expected!     Just  what  the  world 

saw,  marvelled  at,  admired  in  the  early 

days  of  the  Great  War — a  hundred  million 

20 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

people  standing  together,  shoulder  to 
shoulder,  with  but  one  purpose,  one  pas- 
sion, one  aim,  all  thinking  alike,  all  know- 
ing they  and  their  leaders  were  right,  none 
questioning,  all  obeying,  all  ready  to  fight 
to  death  for  land,  tribe,  and  cause. 

Such  was  the  tribe  of  Teutons  when  the 
war  began. 


21 


CHAPTER  II 

THE     TBIBE     UNCONQUEEABLE — AND     UNCON- 
QUEEING 

At  the  outset  of  the  great  combat  most 
neutral  onlookers  were  inclined  to  ascribe 
the  quality  of  invincibility  to  this,  the 
world's  greatest  and  most  closely  knit 
tribe.  They  seemed  masterful.  Along 
with  their  wonderful  unity  and  unprece- 
dented spirit  of  patriotic  devotion  they 
had  organization  and  preparation  so  much 
superior  to  those  of  their  enemies  that  the 
latter  appeared  to  be  engaged  in  a  hope- 
less struggle. 

The  neutral  world  looked  on  with  bated 

breath.    Whatever  opinions  were  held  as 

to  the  justice  of  the  German  cause,  as  to 

the  wisdom  and  morality  of  those  who  had 

22 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

forced  the  war,  as  to  the  meaning  of  a 
German  triumph  to  civilization,  there  ex- 
isted everywhere  profound  admiration  for 
the  spirit  of  the  German  people,  for  their 
valor  as  soldiers,  for  the  skill  and  fore- 
sight of  their  military  preparedness  and 
organization,  for  their  phenomenal  energy 
and  spectacular  performance  in  the  field 
of  battle. 

No  one  would  have  been  surprised  to 
see  the  Teutons  soon  masters  of  Paris  and 
much  of  France,  with  fair  prospect  of  at- 
taining such  power  in  Europe  as  to  make 
them  henceforth  the  foremost  political 
power  of  the  world.  But  the  Battle  of  the 
Marne  proved  to  be  the  turning  point  of 
the  titanic  combat.  After  that  it  was  quite 
apparent  Berlin  was  not  to  be  a  second 
Rome.  The  world  was  not  to  fall  under 
Teutonic  discipline.  There  remained  only 
the  questions,  Can  Germany  be  defeated? 
Is  it  to  be  a  drawn  battle !  Shall  the  peace 
23 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

be  a  mere  truce  or  permanent  1  "What  can 
or  should  be  done  to  those  responsible  for 
the  catastrophe!  What  is  likely  to  happen 
within  Germany? 

The  course  of  the  war  thenceforth  was 
in  line  with  this  general  conclusion.  Gradu- 
ally the  Teutonic  forces  became  relatively 
weaker — ^weaker  more  in  economic  re- 
sources than  in  men  and  material  for  war- 
making — gradually  the  allied  forces  grew 
relatively  stronger.  When  the  high  tide 
of  German  success  had  passed  in  1915 
without  victories  of  a  decisive  character 
the  ending  became  painfully  apparent.  It 
was  only  a  question  of  time  when  the  Teu- 
tonic hordes  would  be  checkmated;  when 
exclusion  from  the  sea  would  have  its  in- 
evitable effect;  when,  instead  of  conquer- 
ing the  world,  they  would  have  their  backs 
against  their  frontiers  in  staunch,  stub- 
born defense  of  Fatherland. 

It  so  happened.  After  violent,  heroic 
24 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

fighting  at  many  points  along  the  great 
fronts,  after  temporary  success  first  for 
one  side  and  then  for  the  other,  after  am- 
ple demonstration  on  a  thousand  bloody 
fields  that  in  our  day  brute  force,  valor, 
courage,  sacrifice  backed  by  modern  or- 
ganization and  wielding  modern  instru- 
ments of  slaughter  and  destruction  are  fu- 
tile agents  of  human  purpose — futile  be- 
cause inevitably  met  and  checked  by  other 
brute  force,  valor,  organization,  weapons, 
of  equal  strength;  after  half  the  human 
race  had  been  plunged  into  prolonged  an- 
guish to  prove  that  mankind  has  developed 
to  a  stage  where  physical  violence  has  lost 
all  its  former  savage  power  to  determine 
human  rivalries — 

After  all  this  had  been  made  so  pain- 
fully plain  as  to  be  clear  even  to  the  pas- 
sion-inflamed eyes  of  the  rival  chieftains, 
stubborn,  savage  fighting  pride  forced 
them  to  keep  up  the  insensate  shambles 
25 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

along  the  Meuse,  the  Yser,  elsewhere,  till 
at  length  all  mankind,  filled  with  horrified 
disgust,  could  only  cry  ** Shame!'' 

After  still  more  slaughter  and  shambles 
reaction  finally  came  in  exhaustion  and 
despair.  At  last  the  weary  warriors 
paused  for  breath  and  settled  down  to  an- 
other period  of  grim,  gripping  deadlock, 
glaring  at  one  another  from  their  caves 
and  trenches.  Neither  made  attack,  both 
realizing  its  futility. 

All  this  time  there  was  much  talk  of 
peace.  Again  and  again  the  Germans 
made  informal  overtures,  announced  that 
the  door  was  open,  they  were  ready  to 
treat.  But  there  was  no  peace.  There 
were  no  formal  negotiations  or  moves  for 
peace.  Disappointed,  the  world  looked 
sadly  forward  to  another  winter  of  the  bit- 
ter, desperate  struggle  of  ruin  and  exhaus- 
tion. The  end  was  not  in  sight,  not  to  be 
seen  upon  the  troubled  surface.  Were  the 
26 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

mad  tribes  determined  to  exterminate  one 
another? 

An  Armistice 

Suddenly,  without  warning  or  even 
rumor  running  ahead,  to  the  world's 
great  surprise  and  joy  came  official  an- 
nouncement that  a  general  armistice 
had  been  arranged  between  all  the  con- 
tending armies  for  a  period  of  three 
months. 

Formal  negotiation  of  peace  was  ex- 
pected to  follow  immediately. 

But  it  did  not  come.  Week  after  week 
passed,  with  no  sign  of  official  overture 
from  any  of  the  capitals  of  the  belligerent 
powers.  Proffers  of  mediation  were  re- 
pelled by  both  sides.  The  troops  were 
merely  hibernating  on  all  the  long  fronts. 
Paralysis  seemed  to  have  stricken  the  con- 
tenders. Why  do  they  not  do  something? 
What  is  the  meaning  of  this  armistice? 
27 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

How  was  it  brought  about,  and  why  do 
they  not  make  peace? 

These  were  the  mysteries  which  plagued 
all  mankind  with  prolonged,  painful  doubt 
and  curiosity. 


28 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  MIGHTIEST  MOVEMENT  OF   THE  WAR 

All  this  time  there  was  in  motion  the 
mightiest  movement  of  the  war.  A  mo- 
mentous, decisive  battle  was  being  fought, 
and  won.  An  irresistible  force,  unherald- 
ed in  official  bulletins,  undescribed  in  un- 
official reports,  was  bearing  down  upon  the 
very  center  of  the  field  of  battle,  coming 
from  a  mysterious  source,  moving  in  a 
mysterious  way,  advancing  with  the  slow- 
ness of  an  avalanche,  but,  like  the  ava- 
lanche, crushing,  crumbling  everything 
that  stood  in  its  way. 

We  know  now  what  the  impatient  world 

did  not  then  know,  or  at  least  only  vaguely 

suspected,  that  this  mighty  movement  had 

really  started  long  before,  had  brought  on 

29 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

the  armistice,  produced  the  prolonged 
pause,  palsied  the  hand  of  slaughter  and 
destruction,  and  was  now  bringing  the  end 
slowly  but  surely  nearer. 

It  had  begun  with  faint,  vague,  misty 
murmurings  in  a  few  German  minds. 
Slowly  the  whisperings  had  gained  defi- 
niteness,  resolved  themselves  into  form, 
gradually  the  number  of  men  to  whom 
they  came  grew  larger  and  larger.  The 
growth  and  spread  must  have  been  slow 
indeed,  for  aU  habit  and  inherited  and  in- 
culcated posture  of  mind,  all  instinct,  tra- 
dition, were  against  them.  Loyalty  to 
tribe,  dominant  sense  of  duty,  long  sup- 
pressed all  outward  expression  of  these  in- 
ner murmurings.  Passion  to  win,  pride  of 
race  and  tribe,  dogged  courage  in  adversity 
and  disappointment,  long  kept  tongues 
still.  The  mighty  movement  had  begun  its 
work  silently  within  silent  atoms. 

Multitudes  of  soldiers  found  sleep  in  the 
30 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

trenches,  the  caves,  the  camps  only  after 
long  hours  of  silent  wrestling  with  their 
mysterious  inner  unrest,  with  the  ill-de- 
fined stirrings  of  their  spirit,  rising  in  the 
morning  with  the  irritating  agitation  still 
there,  but  not  to  be  spoken  of,  not  to  be 
confessed  as  a  weakness  or  spiritual  sin, 
never  knowing  that  the  comrades  who  lay 
alongside  were  passing  through  a  like  ex- 
perience. At  home  multitudes  of  men  and 
women,  by  day  patriots  as  of  old,  devoted 
as  always  to  the  tribe,  giving  all  they  could 
give,  enduring  all  that  the  circumstance 
and  cruelty  of  war  brought  to  them  to  en- 
dure, speaking  no  word  of  the  specter  of 
doubt  that  had  unbidden  found  lodgment 
within  them,  went  to  bed,  there  long  to 
wrestle  with  and  try  to  understand  or  eject 
the  unwelcome  intruder. 

The  mighty  movement  was  under  way, 
the  law  of  gravitation  was  stirring  within 
the  atoms  of  the  great  mass.    Still,  all  was 
31 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

silence,  no  word  was  spoken.  Discipline, 
habit,  pride,  duty,  mass-mentality,  and  all 
the  persistence  and  stubbornness  of  these, 
for  a  long  time  suppressed  articulation, 
but  no  power  on  earth  could  suppress  med- 
itation. 

The  Irrepressible  Inner  Something 

For  a  brief  interval  of  time  artificial 
force  may  apparently  turn  the  law  of  grav- 
itation upside  down,  but  omnipotence  can- 
not keep  it  there.    It  will  right  itself. 

The  law  of  gravitation  had  begun  its 
work  within  the  German  people.  They  did 
not  consciously  summon  it,  it  summoned  it- 
self. They  did  not  welcome  it,  tried  to  put 
it  out,  but  it  stayed  in  spite  of  them. 

A  highly  developed,  cultured,  rational, 
intellectual  people  of  modem  times  may 
retain  if  they  wish  an  inherited  organiza- 
tion of  mediaeval  tribalism,  call  themselves 
a  tribe,  be  proud  that  they  are  a  tribe,  con- 
32 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

tent  to  stay  a  tribe,  glory  in  the  combined 
and  unified  physical  prowess  of  their 
tribe — 

But  they  cannot  be  a  tribe  when  trem- 
blings of  the  earth  or  shock  or  stress  set 
in  motion  the  internal  law  of  gravitation 
and  put  them  to  the  crucial  test. 

Their  revered  and  most  high  chief,  given 
them  by  the  heavens  or  through  accident 
of  nature,  may  command  the  person,  the 
property,  the  life  of  the  willing  vassal,  but 
he  cannot  command  for  all  time  the  vas- 
sal's inner  something  which  we  know  as 
mind  and  conscience.  The  vassal  may  with 
glad  loyalty  yield  to  the  chief  his  prop- 
erty, his  person,  his  life,  but  even  he  can- 
not yield  the  mysterious  inner  something, 
because  though  in  and  of  him  it  is  beyond 
his  control  and  within  the  control  of  the 
law  of  gravitation. 

Modern  culture  and  intellectual  develop- 
ment have  given  modern  man  a  strong 
33 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

will,  but  it  lias  also  placed  within  him 
something  stronger  than  his  will.  It  is  a 
mysterious  but  inextinguishable  ferment 
of  the  intellect,  an  inexplicable,  insistent, 
irrepressible,  incessant  hunger  for  knowl- 
edge, for  truth,  and  for  right  in  the  light 
of  that  truth. 

This  is  Moral  Force,  the  very  essence  of 
civilization. 

Nothing  in  earth  or  in  the  heavens,  not 
imperial  power  nor  military  authority,  nor 
tribal  feeling  and  ingrained  habit  of 
thought  and  discipline  however  strong,  nor 
passion,  pride,  hatred,  selfishness,  mass- 
obsession  or  the  law  of  attraction  and  cor- 
relation among  the  mental  units,  could  for- 
ever paralyze  the  German  intellect,  kill  the 
German  conscience,  permanently  reverse 
the  magnetic  needle  of  the  German  soul 
and  keep  it  pointing  to  the  negative  pole  of 
error  against  its  fundamental  gravitation 
to  the  positive  pole  of  truth. 
34 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

The  great  force,  shocked  into  movement, 
roused  by  the  crash  of  war,  could  never 
again  be  stopped. 

When  New  Life  Budded  Forth  in  the  Land 
af  the  Tribe 

It  did  not  come  swiftly;  it  was  not  an 
earthquake ;  not  a  violent,  sudden  upheav- 
al, not  a  furious  storm  rushing  violently 
to  its  destination. 

Rather,  it  was  the  soil  of  a  fair  land. 
Now  it  is  winter  there.  All  is  frozen,  hard, 
harsh,  austere,  unhopeful,  seemingly 
changeless.  There  is  no  softness,  no  green 
thing,  no  bud,  or  blossom,  no  warmth,  no 
life.    It  is  cold. 

Down  in  the  soil,  an  inherent  part  of  it, 
are  mysterious  little  seeds.  No  one  knows 
just  what  they  are,  how  they  got  there. 
They  do  not  know  themselves,  they  are  un- 
conscious of  their  glorious  future.  Over- 
head the  cosmos,  not  more  mysterious  in, 
35 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

all  its  eternal  vastness,  its  infinitude  in 
time  and  space,  the  cosmos  with  its  mighty- 
procession  of  the  seasons.    The  seeds  wait. 

The  winter  is  long  and  dreary.  Will  it 
never  end?  Can  it  be  much  longer  en- 
dured? We  the  people  of  this  fair  but 
frozen  land  are  cold,  we  suffer,  children 
are  suffering,  women  are  suffering  and 
waiting  in  the  land,  all  are  hungry  for 
warmth,  all  are  weary,  all  are  cold.  Shall 
we  never  be  warm  again? 

Hour  by  hour  and  day  by  day  the  sun 
comes  nearer.  His  approach  is  well-nigh 
imperceptible;  hope  itself  remains  blind, 
frozen.  But  he  comes.  He  is  inevitable. 
No  power  can  stop  him.  We  know  not  why 
he  comes,  or  how,  but  he  comes.  He  is 
already  near. 

Now  the  earth  gets  warmer.  First  in 
favored  spots,  then  everywhere.  Now 
there  is  a  little  sunshine  each  day;  later 
much  more  sunshine.    The  cold  goes  away. 

36 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

A  few  of  the  small  seeds  send  forth  tiny, 
timid  sprouts.  More  join  them,  then  more 
and  more.  Humble  plants,  coy  in  lowly 
corners,  are  encouraged  by  finer,  more  de- 
veloped, richer,  luxuriant  flowers.  Soon 
the  country  side  is  all  green.  With 
warmth  come  courage,  buoyancy,  fullness, 
expression.  Majestic  trees,  the  upstand- 
ing, strong  characters  of  the  fast  changing 
landscape,  clothe  their  bald  limbs  with 
color,  action,  life,  saying  to  all  smaller  ad- 
venturers, ^^Be  not  afraid,  the  winter  has 
passed,  this  is  the  summer  of  our  content. '^ 

Like  this  came  the  great  awakening 
which  changed  the  history  of  the  human 
race. 

It  was  inevitable.     . 

It  was  in  the  soil,  in  the  little  insidious 
seeds,  in  the  law  of  gravitation,  in  the  soul 
of  the  German  land,  in  the  eternal  sun  of 
the  heavens  which  panoply  civilization. 

There  was  no  power  anywhere  great 
37 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

enough  to  stop  the  seasons  and  keep  it 
always  winter  along  the  Rhine,  the  Elbe, 
the  Weser,  no  power  anywhere  great 
enough  to  reverse  the  law  of  gravitation  in 
the  moral  force  of  a  highly  developed 
people. 


38 


CHAPTER  IV 

OPENED  EYES 

Akticulation  soon  followed  meditation. 
Courage  came  to  individuals  with  the 
warmth  of  strengthening,  insistent  convic- 
tion. When  German  began  speaking  to 
German  of  his  doubts  and  fears  the  sun 
crossed  the  equator — it  was  spring  in  the 
land. 

German  began  speaking  openly  to  Ger- 
man early  in  the  year  1916.  All  was  not 
well  in  the  military  field.  Physical  vio- 
lence, formidable  as  it  was,  had  not  car- 
ried the  tribe  far  along  the  road  to  glory 
or  gain.  German  blood  and  German  re- 
sources seemed  to  be  pouring  through  a 
sieve;  that  could  not  go  on  forever.  Val- 
orous as  were  the  armies,  they  made  small 
39 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

definite  and  permanent  headway.  Russia 
was  a  huge  elastic  mass,  not  very  hard,  but 
immense,  whose  surface  only  Teuton  skill 
and  energy  could  dent  here  and  there  and 
then  fall  back  in  the  rebound,  as  much  hurt 
as  hurting.  France  proved  to  be  a  stone 
wall  of  nationalism  as  courageous,  valor- 
ous, stubborn,  stolid,  resistant,  as  Ger- 
many might  have  built  with  much  the  same 
material,  and  the  wall  bristled  with  thorns 
and  was  alive  with  vipers.  England  was 
a  huge  bulldog,  slow,  muddling,  inefficient, 
stupid  at  times,  but  plucky,  hanging  on,  a 
bulldog  always,  and  always  set  square  and 
stubborn  in  the  Teuton  path. 

Above  all,  England  was  master  of  the 
seas. 

With  eyes  a  little  ways  opened  by  much 
painful  thinking  the  sons  of  the  tribe  be- 
gan to  get  glimpses  of  the  actual  state  of 
things.  If  their  leaders  had  set  out  to  con- 
quer the  world  that  conquest  must  still  be 
40 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

far  away.  For  the  world  that  their  lead- 
ers had  promised  was  to  be  theirs  seemed 
now  a  vast  space  outside  an  iron  ring  that 
shut  them  and  Germany  in  by  land  and 
sea. 

Though  they  fought  bravely  on  and 
pressed  with  all  their  might  against  the 
barrier,  they  used  their  perceptions  as  well 
as  their  brute  strength,  their  eyes  as  well 
as  their  fists,  and  they  could  not  see,  much 
as  they  hoped  to  see,  the  ring  receding  or 
going  to  pieces. 

At  times  it  seemed  to  them  to  be  draw- 
ing closer  in,  getting  thicker,  tighter, 
stronger.  Little  Belgium,  a  part  of 
France,  a  corner  of  elastic  Russia,  the  pig 
pastures  of  Serbia,  did  not  form  a  large 
part  of  the  great  world  in  the  eyes  of  those 
who  remembered  their  geography — one  of 
the  minor  inconveniences  of  trying  to  make 
true  mediaeval  spearmen  out  of  vassals 
who  had  all  been  to  school. 
41 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

And  the  eyes  of  the  most  thoughtful  and 
long-visioned  could  see,  at  least  with  the 
mind's  eye  could  sense,  another  ring  out- 
side the  one  of  iron  and  steel,  intangible 
but  immensely  more  significant,  the  outer 
ring  supporting  the  inner  one,  making  the 
inner  unbreakable,  impregnable,  eternal. 

This  dense,  dark,  ominous  outer  circle 
was  the  public  opinion  of  mankind. 

Confinement  within  a  relatively  narrow 
space,  steel-bordered,  and  beyond  the  steel 
a  great  frowning  cloud  composed  of  mil- 
lions on  millions  of  people  who  have  placed 
a  judgment  upon  you  and  stand  ready  to 
apprehend  you  and  send  you  back  to  your 
little  narrow  space  if  you  are  so  lucky  as 
to  break  through  the  wall  of  steel,  is  sure 
to  stimulate  reflection.  Thus  shut  in  one 
may  fight,  beat  against  the  barriers,  rush 
to  and  fro  like  a  wild  beast  in  his  cage, 
claw,  strike,  bite,  growl,  show  fangs,  but 
in  the  inevitable  pauses,  in  the  stops  for 
42 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

breath  and  sleep,  one  thinks,  and  thinks — 
analyzes,  inquires. 

To  many  Germans,  by  nature  medita- 
tive, analytical,  prone  to  face  facts,  seek 
truth,  save  when  high  authority  forbade — 
and  now  even  high  authority  could  not  in- 
terpose— to  many  who  remembered  the  re- 
cent days  in  which  all  the  lands  and  all  the 
seas  were  open  to  them,  all  the  world  gave 
them  welcome,  when  there  were  no  bar- 
riers anywhere,  no  wall  of  steel  or  cloud 
of  frowns,  this  small  space  they  were  now 
fighting  in  seemed  more  like  a  world  prison 
than  a  world  throne. 

The  Inevitable  Interrogation 

At  length  the  men  in  field  gray  even 
while  hurling  themselves  at  the  word  of 
command  upon  the  strongholds  of  the  foe, 
facing  futile  slaughter  where  futile  slaugh- 
ter had  come  to  them  so  many  times  be- 
fore, began  asking  ''WhjV 
43 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

Men  and  women  at  home,  mourning  their 
dead,  tenderly  caring  the  torn  and  rent 
wrecks  of  sons  and  fathers  sent  them  by 
train  loads  from  the  fighting  fronts,  be- 
gan asking  ^'WhjV^ 

German  intelligence,  so  long  held  in  com- 
plete subordination  to  tribal  loyalty  and 
discipline,  seeing  and  feeling  the  iron  ring 
and  the  other  band  of  frowning  cloud 
round  about  the  land,  began  asking 
**Why?''  ^as  this  the  conquest  of  the 
world  we  were  promised!''  **What  has 
become  of  the  invincibility  of  our  arms  we 
were  taught  to  believe  in  as  in  Fatherland 
itself  f  *^  Where  is  the  infallible  genius 
of  our  high  command  that  was  to  make  our 
task  a  short  and  easy  oneT' 

As  had  been  inevitable  from  the  very 
first,  some  time  or  other,  the  Germans 
were  now  ceasing  to  be  mere  tribesmen. 

Contentment  with  any  sort  of  explana- 
tion of  any  sort  of  phenomena,  or  no  ex- 
44 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

planation  at  all,  blind  obedience  without 
vision,  brute  strength  thrown  into  the 
bludgeon  without  the  brain  asking  ques- 
tions, is  of  the  essence  of  pure  tribalism — 
a  real  tribe  cannot  exist  without  it. 

The  German  people  had  begun  their  nec- 
essary and  inevitable^ ask  of  learning  that 
they  are  a  highly  civilized  people  and  not 
a  feudal  tribe  in  their  relations  and  respon- 
sibilities to  the  remainder  of  the  world  in 
which  they  live,  had  taken  in  hand  the 
primer  of  the  lesson  they  must  learn  that 
as  a  member  of  the  human  society  they 
must  conform  to  that  society's  moral  law 
or  suffer  the  penalty  of  revolt  against  it. 

They  were  awakening  from  the  decep- 
tion they  had  put  upon  themselves  that 
because  they  preferred  tribalism  in  their 
housekeeping,  and  found  it  worked  well 
there,  they  had  a  right  to  try  to  impose  it 
upon  other  families,  who  wished  it  not. 

The  awakening  could  not  come  as  long 
45 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

as  they  remained  at  home  and  busied  them- 
selves with  domestic  affairs.  It  could  not 
come  now  that  they  were  out  in  the  world 
trying  to  ram  their  system  down  the 
throats  of  their  neighbors  as  long  as  all 
was  going  well  with  that  rash  adventure. 
With  success,  with  achievement,  with  tri- 
umph, action  has  its  auto-intoxication. 
Masses  of  men  like  individuals  rush  for- 
ward like  the  racer,  blood  hot  in  the  brain, 
muscles  and  nerves  quivering,  nothing  in 
the  spirit  but  feverish  flashes  of  getting 
there,  beating,  winning. 

It  is  rather  fine  to  race,  to  fight,  to  strug- 
gle, to  feel  the  thrill  of  life,  action,  success. 

But  when  the  check  comes,  defeat,  dis- 
appointment, adversity,  desperation,  then 
comes  meditation,  the  blood  cools,  the  in- 
tellect resumes  its  normal  function,  not  all 
of  this  body  is  muscle  and  sinew,  there  is 
something  stronger  than  mere  physical 
force,  something  better. 
46 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

It  was  a  hot  race,  a  fierce  fight,  but  so 
costly,  so  ghastly,  so  many  have  fallen,  we 
sacrifice  so  much,  suffer  so  much;  and  the 
folk  at  home,  and  the  future? 

What  are  we  racing  and  fighting  and 
falling  and  suffering  for?  What  could  we 
have  gained  had  we  won? 

And  what  is  the  meaning  of  all  those 
walls  and  rings  about  us  out  there?  The 
inner  one  we  can  understand — that  is  jeal- 
ousy of  Germany,  that  is  the  determination 
of  our  envious,  wicked  rivals  to  crush  us, 
destroy  us. 

But  the  other  one,  that  great  dark  cloud 
outside  which  seems  to  shut  the  sun  and 
the  stars  from  our  view  and  stand  between 
us  and  the  heavens ;  say,  comrade,  what  is 
the  meaning  of  that? 

It  soon  became  apparent  that  German 
civilization,  morality,  intellectuality,  man- 
hood, German  innate  and  inexorable  search 
47 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

for  truth  and  right,  were  not  of  such 
stuff  as  a  true  mediaeval  tribe  is  made 
of. 

Slowly  but  surely,  irresistibly,  came  the 
awakening.  His  obsession  at  an  end,  re- 
covered from  the  mass-hypnotic  state  his 
fervent  patriotism  had  plunged  him  into, 
once  more  a  human  being  of  self- starting, 
self-steering  reasoning  faculties,  again  a 
true  son  of  culture  to  whom  the  truth  and 
the  right  are  as  indispensable  as  air  for 
lungs  and  food  for  stomach,  his  feet  once 
set  by  imperious  inner  command  upon  the 
path  that  must  lead  to  ultimate  solution 
and  remedy,  with  characteristic  thorough- 
ness and  courage  the  German  went  to  the 
end  of  the  trail. 

Once  aroused,  he  flinched  at  nothing, 
faced  everything.  He  analyzed  not  only 
all  the  facts  pertaining  to  the  cause  and 
origin  of  the  great  tragedy,  but  all  the 
events,  personages,  principles,  effects  as- 
48 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

sociated  with  its  progress.  He  dissected 
not  only  the  catastrophe  itself,  but  the  sys- 
tem which  had  made  the  tragedy  possible. 
And  in  the  end  he  dissected  himself,  his 
relation  to  that  system,  and  that  system's 
relations  to  the  great  band  of  cloud  out- 
side the  ring  of  iron  and  steel  surrounding 
him  and  his  land  and  his  people. 

The  awakening  had  come;  it  was  sum- 
mer again  along  the  Rhine,  the  Elbe,  the 
Weser. 

The  best  because  most  revealing  chron- 
icles of  this  great  movement  of  a  truly 
great  people  in  one  of  the  greatest  crises 
known  to  the  history  of  mankind  are  found 
in  the  innumerable  German  writings,  ad- 
dresses, publicly  adopted  resolutions,  es- 
says, and,  at  the  last,  certain  historic  doc- 
uments and  state  papers  of  the  pregnant 
period  of  the  German  Political  Reforma- 
tion. 

49 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

Future  historians  will  write  many  mas- 
sive and  dignified  volumes  descriptive  of 
the  events  of  this  period,  ranking  them  in 
importance  in  the  history  of  the  human 
race  with  the  dawn  of  Christianity,  the 
discovery  of  America,  the  invention  of 
printing,  the  religious  Reformation,  the 
French  Revolution,  the  founding  of  the 
American  Republic. 

But  it  is  doubtful  if  any  other  narrative 
could  be  more  eloquent  of  the  process  and 
spirit  of  the  regeneration  of  the  German 
people  than  the  simple,  earnest  outpour- 
ings of  the  Germans  themselves  as  they 
emerged  from  the  trial  of  fire  and  suffer- 
ing and  sacrifice,  strengthened,  purified, 
uplifted,  asserted  their  manhood  right  to 
be  a  nation  in  all  things  and  not  a  feudal 
tribe  in  anything,  gave  ample  and  freely 
accepted  atonement  for  all  error,  and  not 
only  were  able  to  resume  their  high  full 
fellowship  in  the  family  of  nations,  but 
50 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

led  all  the  nations  in  conferring  upon  man- 
kind one  of  the  greatest  blessings  since  the 
creation. 


51 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   GERMAN   POLITICAL    REFORMATION 

(Extracts  from  writings,  addresses  and 
documents  published  in  Germany  near 
the  end  of  the  Great  War) 

We  German  people  were  told  by  you, 
our  government,  which  we  believed  with  all 
our  souls,  we  could  implicitly  trust  in  all 
things,  that  the  Great  War  was  forced 
upon  us,  that  our  enemies,  jealous  of  our 
rising  commercial  and  political  power,  had 
wickedly  leagued  together  for  the  purpose 
of  destroying  us. 

We  were  told  by  you  in  high  authority, 
upon  whom  we  depended  for  all  informa- 
tion and  for  all  guida"pce  in  matters  with- 
out our  domestic  circle,  as  children  depend 
upon  their  fathers  for  tidings  of  the  great 
52 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

world  beyond  their  home,  that  the  enemy 
was  prepared  and  massed  for  attack  upon 
us,  that  Russian  troops  had  already 
crossed  our  frontier,  that  France  was 
springing  to  the  blow,  but  that  England, 
though  contriving  with  secret  intrigue  to 
set  the  others  upon  us,  was  herself  too 
craven  to  fight,  and  would  stay  smug  and 
self-satisfied  in  peace  and  security. 

All  this  we  believed,  believed  because 
you  told  us,  because  you  had  all  sources 
of  information,  because  we  trusted  you. 

In  the  little  that  we  were  permitted  to 
know  of  the  Serbian  crisis  we  had  been 
unable  to  see  that  the  welfare  of  our  nation 
was  seriously  involved,  that  any  cause  ex- 
isted for  our  intervention. 

As  you  well  know,  as  all  the  world  should 
know,  we,  the  German  people,  had  always 
looked  upon  our  army  and  navy  as  mere 
protectors  of  the  nation,  and  for  that  pur- 
pose we  had  always  wished  them  to  be 
53 


THE  GEKMAN  EEPUBLIC 

strong  and  efficient.  We  had  been  taught 
to  believe,  and  did  believe,  that  the  surest 
way  to  avert  attack  was  to  be  so  strong 
that  our  enemies,  if  we  had  any,  would  not 
dare  measure  strength  with  us.  For  this 
reason,  and  no  other,  we  were  heart  and 
soul  for  a  strong  military  establishment, 
for  this  we  paid  our  high  taxes,  gave  our 
military  service. 

A  People  of  and  for  Peace 

When  outsiders  criticized  us  as  a  mil- 
itaristic nation,  led  by  war-lords,  railed  at 
our  mailed  fist  and  rattling  of  sabres,  and 
predicted  that  some  day  we  should  start 
a  war  of  conquest  upon  our  neighbors,  we 
only  smiled  and  were  serene  in  our  knowl- 
edge that  you,  our  leaders,  and  we,  the 
people,  were  at  one  in  holding  that  our 
military  establishment  was  for  defense 
only  and  was  never  to  be  used  in  wanton 
attack  upon  others. 

54 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

The  first  of  July,  1914,  war  was  far  from 
our  thoughts.  Not  one  in  a  thousand  of  us 
had  even  fear  that  we  were  soon  to  be  in- 
volved in  a  mighty  conflict  in  which  the 
very  life  of  the  nation  should  be  at  stake. 

When  you  told  us  a  few  weeks  later  that 
we  were  about  to  be  attacked  and  war  was 
therefore  upon  us,  your  words  came  to  us 
like  thunderbolts  from  a  clear  sky. 

Surprised  and  amazed  as  we  were,  not 
one  of  us  in  all  the  land  had  a  thought  of 
questioning  your  wisdom,  your  sincerity, 
your  accuracy  of  information  and  state- 
ment. We  knew  your  devotion  to  the  best 
and  highest  interests  of  the  nation,  we 
knew  you  would  not  yourselves  bring  on  a 
war,  we  knew  you  would  take  good  care 
never  to  plunge  us  into  war  as  long  as  it 
was  possible  with  honor  to  avert  war. 

You  summoned  us  to  defense  of  Father- 
land, and  you  know,  all  the  world  knows, 
how  with  all  our  strength  and  all  our  souls 
55 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

we  responded  to  the  call.  We  are  proud 
of  the  confidence  and  loyalty  we  gave  you. 
We  are  proud  of  our  unity  of  feeling  and 
action,  of  all  the  sacrifices  we  have  made 
upon  the  altar  of  country,  and  we  have 
reason  to  believe  the  neutral  peoples,  even 
our  enemies,  do  not  blame  us  German  peo- 
ple for  what  we  did. 

For  a  long  time  our  patriotic  spirit,  our 
whole-hearted  confidence  in  the  fidelity  of 
you  who  spoke  and  acted  for  the  country, 
forbade  us  to  harbor  even  the  faintest 
thought  that  you  might  have  erred.  For 
us  it  was  only  to  respond,  to  obey,  to  fight, 
follow,  not  to  analyze,  question,  criticize. 

Those  who  looked  on  from  afar,  with 
vision  clearer  than  ours  could  be  in  the 
midst  of  conflict,  saw  what  we  were  blind 
to,  that  this  state  of  mind  could  not  forever 
continue  among  us ;  that  it  is  not  in  human 
nature,  not  in  the  natures  of  grown  men, 
modern,  cultured,  self-reliant,  endowed 
56 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

with  eyes  to  see  and  brains  to  reason,  to 
accept  indefinitely  any  dictum  whatsoever 
without  inquiry  into  its  inherent  truth. 

It  so  happened.  After  a  long  time 
doubts  did  creep  unbidden  into  our  minds. 
They  came  not  from  any  information  or 
explanation  you  were  kind  enough  to  give 
us,  but  through  that  which  we  as  observ- 
ing and  thinking  men  came  to  know  of  our- 
selves— ^when  we  saw  that  we  were  sur- 
rounded by  an  iron  ring  of  enemies  and 
outside  that  hard  circle  a  still  greater, 
stronger  and  more  ominous  one,  the  ad- 
verse opinion  of  civilization. 

Instinct  then  told  us  something  was 
wrong.  There  must  have  been  something 
connected  with  the  cause  of  the  war,  the 
great  question  of  moral  responsibility 
therefor,  which  the  outside  world  under- 
stood better  than  we  did,  perhaps  because 
the  outside  world  had  access  to  informa- 
tion which  had  been  withheld  from  us. 
57 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

That  is  what  the  outer  ring  told  us,  in  that 
way  the  outer  ring  started  us  thinking. 
By  the  inner  ring  and  the  outer  together 
we  knew  the  war  was  not  won,  as  you  had 
so  often  told  us,  the  only  trouble  being, 
according  to  your  version,  that  the  foe  was 
too  stupid  and  stubborn  to  know  when  he 
was  beaten.  By  all  these  signs  we  read 
that  even  if  we  were  to  win  the  war  on  its 
physical  side  there  was  something  higher 
than  that,  something  so  far  beyond  we 
could  never  reach  it  or  overcome  it  with 
our  armies,  however  victorious,  that  the 
more  we  won  in  war  the  less  we  should 
have  worth  having  when  the  peace  came. 

Closing  German  Eyes  with  German  Blood 

You  in  high  authority  must  have  discov- 
ered the  presence  among  us  of  these  spec- 
ters of  doubt  and  mistrust  almost  as  soon 
as  we  ourselves  were  conscious  of  their  ex- 
istence. You  did  not  wish  to  have  our 
58 


THE  GERMAN  REPtJBLIC 

minds  work  without  orders  from  you,  you 
did  not  want  our  eye-lids  to  lift  of  their 
own  free  motion.  You  must  have  reasoned 
that  inasmuch  as  we  at  the  front  and  the 
people  at  home  had  been  quiet  and  pliant 
enough  so  long  as  all  was  going  well  in 
the  field,  the  best  way  to  expel  these  un- 
comfortable spectral  visitors  from  our 
minds  was  to  dazzle  us  with  some  sensa- 
tional military  triumph. 

And  so  you  ordered  us  to  take  the  ene- 
my's greatest  stronghold,  his  well-nigh  im- 
pregnable positions.  We  see  now  that 
your  aim  could  not  have  been  based  purely 
upon  military  considerations.  If  it  had 
been  you  would  have  made  your  attack  on 
positions  less  strong,  where  were  better 
chances  of  success,  less  certainty  of  ghast- 
ly loss.  You  would  have  sought  the  ene- 
my's weakest,  not  his  strongest  point, 
where  the  odds  were  heavily  against  us, 
and  where,  if  beaten,  he  could  retire  to 
59 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

other  positions  now  made  almost  as  strong 
and  invite  us  to  come  and  take  them,  too, 
at  his  own  bloody  price  of  five  to  one. 

No,  you  sought  a  spectacular  success 
that  should  set  the  flags  flying  all  through 
Fatherland,  rouse  anew  the  popular  en- 
thusiasm, drown  thinking  in  shouting, 
smother  cerebration  in  celebration. 

You  fed  us  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
to  the  hells  along  the  Meuse.  You  flung 
great  columns  of  us  into  the  fire-swept 
open  there  to  crumple  up  and  lie  seething 
and  moaning  on  the  red  ground.  Then  you 
flung  other  columns  after  the  first,  to  crum- 
ple in  their  turn.  You  smeared  the  ground 
for  many  miles  about  with  the  dismem- 
bered fragments  of  men  and  the  unburied, 
rotting  bodies  of  our  sons  and  brothers. 
You  filled  long  trains  with  maimed,  blind- 
ed, broken,  ruined  men. 

You  tried  to  close  our  eyes  with  our  own 
blood. 

60 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

But  you  did  not  succeed.  We  wiped 
away  the  blood,  and  the  bitter,  bitter  tears, 
and  then  opened  our  eyes  still  wider. 

The  Great,  Fateful  Deception 

If  you  could  deceive  us  as  to  the  course 
of  the  war,  strive  to  continue  the  deception 
by  stopping  our  eyes  with  our  own  blood, 
there  must  be  something  back  of  that  which 
you  are  also  keeping  from  us,  about  which 
you  had  deceived  us.  If  you  had  told  us 
the  truth  as  to  the  cause  of  the  war  there 
would  be  no  need  of  telling  us  anything 
but  truth  as  to  its  course.  If  it  were  pure- 
ly a  war  of  German  defense,  of  keeping 
the  invader  out  of  Fatherland,  Verdun,  the 
shambles,  would  be  unnecessary. 

Our  fears  and  doubts  stirred,  we  sought 
for  ourselves  the  facts  as  to  the  cause  of 
the  war,  the  facts  which  you  never  gave 
us,  which  we  never  before  sought  because 
we  were  too  busy  killing  and  being  killed 
61 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

through  our  trust  that  you  had  reported 
the  truth  to  us  and  therefore  inquiry  into 
the  facts  was  not  needed. 

And  now,  after  thorough  search  for  the 
truth  for  ourselves,  we  say  to  you  our  con- 
clusion is  the  war  did  not  come  because 
our  enemies  were  about  to  attack  us.  We 
find  no  evidence  in  support  of  that.  We 
find  that  not  one  of  our  enemies  was  pre- 
pared for  war,  or  wanted  war.  No  enemy 
had  crossed  our  frontier. 

All  the  governments  of  the  countries 
with  which  we  are  now  at  war  tried  to  keep 
the  peace.  All  sought  adjustment  of  the 
Serbian  dispute  by  the  usual  peaceful 
means.  Even  our  Teutonic  ally,  whose 
quarrel  it  was,  not  ours,  was  willing  to  con- 
fer with  Europe  upon  a  question  which 
had  become  European,  much  more  than 
local.  The  only  government  that  refused 
conference  was  the  one  which  you  con- 
trolled. 

62 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

In  the  first  account  you  gave  us  of  the 
cause  of  the  war  you  said  it  was  Russia 
that  must  be  held  responsible,  Russia  was 
determined  to  attack,  had  crossed  our 
frontier,  we  must  rally  to  beat  back  the 
Slav  peril.  In  your  second  account,  given 
after  England  had  joined  the  alliance 
against  us,  though  at  first  you  had  said 
England  would  not  fight,  it  was  England 
who  was  responsible — England,  jealous, 
wicked,  determined  to  crush  her  rival,  fo- 
menting and  intriguing  war  upon  us. 

We  have  reviewed  the  historical  evi- 
dence of  that  episode,  and  we  find,  as  all 
neutral  students  have  found,  that  instead 
of  wanting  war,  for  which  she  was  wholly 
unprepared  save  on  the  sea,  England  was 
doing  all  in  her  power  to  avert  war,  of- 
fered everything  she  could  offer,  proposed 
everything  that  gave  promise,  under  her 
leadership  Russia  and  France  were  eager 
to  confer  with  all  the  powers  to  keep  the 
63 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

peace,  Austria  was  not  unwilling — you 
alone  stood  out. 

England  said  to  you  if  you  could  not  ap- 
prove the  particular  suggestion  she  had 
offered,  propose  something  on  your  own 
account,  some  formula  for  keeping  the 
peace,  and  pledged  you  that  if  that  were 
upset  by  Russia  and  France,  England 
would  let  them  stand  alone  in  the  conse- 
quences. A  word  from  you,  a  single  word, 
involving  no  loss  of  pride  or  dignity,  but 
adding  greatly  to  your  honor  and  prestige, 
would  have  brought  conference  and  kept 
the  peace.    You  did  not  speak  that  word. 

Peace  or  war  rested  with  you — ^you 
chose  war. 

If  you  were  yourselves  deceived,  if  you 
were  self-misled  despite  your  diplomacy, 
your  spies,  your  secret  service,  all  your 
sources  of  information;  if  you  believed 
Russia  was  about  to  attack  us  and  had 
crossed  our  frontier  when  she  was  not 
64 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

meditating  attack  and  had  not  crossed  our 
frontier;  if  you  believed  England  was  in- 
triguing for  war  despite  all  her  efforts  for 
peace  which  common  sense  and  the  judg- 
ment of  the  remainder  of  the  world  have 
found  based  upon  sincerity,  if  you  feared 
England  was  playing  some  trick  upon  you 
when  she  asked  you  to  arrange  the  confer- 
ence in  your  own  way  and  offered  to  stand 
with  you  against  all  who  did  not  come  in; 
if  you  were  deceived  as  to  all  this,  despite 
all  this  believed  our  enemies  were  forcing 
war  upon  us,  your  government  was  so 
grossly  incompetent  as  to  be  unworthy  re- 
sponsibility for  the  destiny  of  a  great 
people. 

There  are  blunders  worse  than  crimes. 

But  you  were  not  deceived.  You  knew 
why  the  war  came. 

It  came  because  you  willed  it,  because 
you  wanted  it  for  purposes  of  your  own, 
and  not  for  the  good  of  the  German  people, 
65 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

wanted  it  for  ends  which  you  knew  the 
German  people  wonld  not  approve  and 
which  if  known  could  not  conunand  hearty 
and  enthusiastic  German  support. 

And  so  you  deceived  us. 

You  appealed  to  our  patriotism  in  the 
one  way  that  was  sure  to  rouse  our  spirit 
to  the  highest  pitch,  for  defense  of  Father- 
land. 

Words  cannot  tell  the  bitterness  that  is 
in  us  as  we  discover  we  have  been  shedding 
our  blood  and  that  of  our  neighbors,  suf- 
fering and  sacrificing  and  inflicting  suffer- 
ing and  sacrifice,  plunging  a  continent  into 
desolation,  bringing  down  upon  our  heads 
the  condemnation  of  all  mankind — for  a 
Ue. 

As  Empty  and  Fruitless  as  a  Dream 

Why  did  you  deceive  us  I    What  was  to 
be  gained  for  Germany?    What  accretion 
of  real  and  lasting  value? 
66 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

Moral  considerations  for  the  moment 
aside,  and  assuming  our  complete  military- 
success,  what  did  you  think  you  could  gain 
for  Germany,  and  hold,  that  would  be 
worth  to  us  as  a  people,  in  promotion  of 
our  prosperity  and  happiness,  a  millionth 
part  of  the  cost  of  getting  it  and  holding 
it? 

Was  it  your  plan  to  conquer  other  na- 
tions, subjugate  or  humble  them,  annex  all 
or  a  part  of  their  territory,  extend  our 
political  power  over  all  or  a  part  of  their 
people? 

If  so,  you  had  no  right  to  embark  upon 
such  a  venture,  plunging  into  it  all  the 
strength  and  resources  of  the  people,  make 
us  your  co-partners  furnishing  all  the  cap- 
ital and  all  the  service,  without  taking  us 
into  your  confidence,  without  letting  us 
know  what  we  were  doing,  what  struggling 
for,  what  profit  was  to  be  ours  for  our  tre- 
mendous investment? 
67 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

You  failed  to  take  us  into  your  confi- 
dence, worked  a  deception  upon  us,  be- 
cause you  knew  full  well  the  German  peo- 
ple would  never  give  their  approval  to  a 
war  of  conquest. 

You  had  no  right  to  assume  we  would 
approve  such  a  war  if  only  it  were  suc- 
cessful, and  that  as  it  was  to  be  success- 
ful, the  deception  would  work  no  injustice 
upon  us. 

You  had  no  right  to  think,  because  we 
have  been  content  with  a  paternal  govern- 
ment, because  we  have  been  obedient  as 
children,  because  we  have  given  trust  and 
loyalty  without  question  and  without  re- 
serve, that  you  could  treat  us  as  if  we  were 
vassals,  mere  hewers  of  wood  and  carriers 
of  water  in  the  tribe,  spear  carriers, 
bludgeon  bearers,  cave  men. 

We  are  the  sons  and  daughters  of  civ- 
ilization and  culture,  of  thought,  philoso- 
phy, art,  literature,  science,  history.  While 
68 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

we  knew  little  or  nothing  of  what  was  go- 
ing on  in  the  foreign  relations  of  our  gov- 
ernment, we  did  know,  and  long  have 
known,  for  our  philosophy,  our  culture, 
our  history  have  told  us,  and  we  presumed 
you  knew  also  even  better  than  we,  that  in 
modern  civilization  conquest  of  other  peo- 
ples as  a  means  of  nation-building  is  as 
empty  and  fruitless  as  a  dream.  It  belongs 
to  an  age  which  the  world  has  left  behind. 
It  yields  neither  permanence  nor  profit, 
brings  neither  prosperity  nor  honor. 

Was  it  for  such  a  nightmare  as  this  that 
you  deceived  us  into  years  of  struggle  with 
our  neighbors,  made  us  the  victims  of  our 
patriotism,  planted  a  million  of  our  sons 
in  fresh,  futile  graves,  doomed  countless 
more  to  live  hereafter  blind,  torn,  crippled, 
wrecked,  tortured? 


69 


CHAPTER  VI 

A  PLACE  IN  THE   SUN? — OK  IN   A   MADHOUSE? 

Or,  sought  you  Germany's  *' Place  in  the 
Sunf  her  right  to  colonial  and  commer- 
cial expansion,  to  freedom  of  the  seas? 

These  jingling  phrases  have  long  rung  in 
our  ears.  They  were  not  unpleasant.  We 
rather  liked  them,  certainly  did  not  reject 
them.  At  times  we  even  echoed  them,  with- 
our  knowing  or  caring  much  what  they 
really  signified,  if  anything.  We  were 
prosperous,  content,  hard  at  work,  happy. 
What  harm  was  done  if  in  the  absence  of 
actual  political  activities  such  as  some  of 
our  neighbors  enjoy  we  Germans  made 
toys  of  catch-phrases  and  tossed  them 
about  for  our  passing  amusement?  They 
were  not  a  serious  part  of  the  life  and 
aspirations  of  a  practical,  hard-headed 
70 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

people,  they  formed  no  national  policy, 
they  gave  you  no  mandate. 

Our  place  in  the  sun!  Is  it  for  this  chi- 
mera that  we  have  been  shedding  our 
blood?  Was  it  your  will  that  we  should 
club  and  kill,  hack  our  way  through  to 
greater  commercial  activity  abroad,  redden 
the  seas  that  more  German  ships  might  sail 
them,  pound  our  way  with  great  guns  into 
more  foreign  markets,  ram  culture  with 
bayonets  down  the  throats  of  primitive 
peoples! 

If  it  is  for  these  jingling  catch-words, 
these  shibboleths  of  emptiness,  that  we 
have  been  fighting,  tell  us  what  they  mean, 
for  we  do  not  know. 

We  do  know  where  we  Germans  stood 
in  the  great  world  when  you  willed  this  war 
upon  us.  We  know  only  too  well  where  we 
stand  now. 

Then  we  had  no  enemies  among  man- 
kind. 

71 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

Now  we  have  no  friends. 

That  is  your  achievement. 

Three  years  ago  no  other  people  were 
more  respected  throughout  civilization 
than  we.  Wherever  Germans  went  they 
carried  with  them  the  repute  of  a  well- 
ordered  household,  friendly  feeling  at 
home  toward  all  neighbors  which  found 
ready  response  abroad.  They  took  with 
them  dignity  of  character,  sincerity,  well 
trained  and  universally  recognized  effi- 
ciency. "With  these  they  found  welcome, 
made  way,  won  confidence,  in  many  lands 
and  a  thousand  fields  of  endeavor. 

In  the  great  American  continent  thou- 
sands of  our  blood  had  found  homes  and 
happiness.  No  other  imported  stock  was 
more  welcome.  No  other  citizens  of  alien 
descent  were  better  liked.  Notwithstand- 
ing ties  of  blood  and  sympathetic  racial 
traits  and  tendencies  not  even  the  English 
found  more,  and  possibly  they  found  a  lit- 
72 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

tie  less,  social  and  commercial  hospitality. 

In  France,  despite  prejudices  growing 
out  of  relatively  recent  historical  happen- 
ings, many  thousands  of  our  people  were 
finding  homes,  prosperity,  and  if  not  the 
warmest  social  welcome,  ample  justice,  fair 
dealing,  protection,  opportunity.  For  one 
Frenchman  living  and  doing  business  in 
Germany  a  thousand  Germans  were  living 
and  thriving  in  France. 

In  Russia  our  financial  and  commercial 
envoys  found  not  only  fair  and  fruitful 
fields,  but  they  had  built  up  there,  even  in 
the  highest  circles,  a  distinct  and  influen- 
tial factor  in  the  national  life. 

In  England  itself,  in  British  possessions 
and  colonies,  in  Italy,  everywhere,  like 
conditions  prevailed.  Nowhere  were  gates 
closed  to  us,  no  artificial  obstacles  were 
placed  in  our  path,  everywhere  we  were 
free  to  compete,  to  strive,  to  adventure,  to 
achieve,  to  prosper. 

73 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

Freedom  of  the  Seas? 

Three  years  ago  smoke  from  German 
fumiels  darkened  the  skies  over  all  the 
Seven  Seas.  German  merchant  marine 
were  to  be  seen  in  all  the  ports  of  the  earth. 
Nowhere  were  prohibitory  or  onerous 
duties  laid  against  them.  In  the  ports  of 
England  itself,  and  France,  our  ships  plied 
their  trade  regularly  and  successfully  in 
open,  fair  competition  with  ships  English 
and  French. 

Our  great  fleets  of  modern  passenger 
vessels  probably  carried  more  American 
passengers  to  and  from  the  ports  of 
France  and  England  than  their  French 
and  English  competitors. 

You  have  lately  told  us  we  could  never 
have  freedom  of  the  seas  till  England's 
naval  domination  were  stopped,  that 
England's  jealousy  and  malice  are  rocks 
in  the  course  of  our  over-sea  expan- 
74 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

sion  which  we  must  blast  out  with  the 
dynamite  and  gun-powder  of  physical 
force. 

But  three  years  ago  our  merchant  ma- 
rine were  seen  in  all  the  ports  of  British 
possessions  and  colonies.  Our  flag  was 
to  be  seen  flying  side  by  side  with  its  Eng- 
lish rival  in  the  harbors  not  only  of  Eng- 
land itself,  but  of  Egypt,  other  parts  of 
Africa  under  British  control,  India,  Cey- 
lon, Australia,  Hongkong,  New  Zealand, 
British  isles  of  the  sea. 

If  there  had  been  but  one  great  naval 
fleet  in  all  the  world,  and  that  one  Ger- 
man, under  your  supreme  control,  the  seas 
could  not  have  been  more  free  to  our  mer- 
chant ships  than  they  were  when  you 
willed  this  war  upon  us. 

Colonies?  Territorial  expansion  over- 
sea!   Is  that  what  we  fight  f  or  ? 

Extensive  colonies  we  had.  Where  are 
they  now  I 

75 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

And  when  we  had  them  you  know  as  well 
as  we  that  our  rule  in  them  was  not  suc- 
cessful, brought  us  neither  honor  nor  gain, 
they  were  to  us  a  national  burden,  not  a 
national  blessing. 

And  you  know,  and  all  the  world  knows, 
that  as  colonial  administrators  we  have 
not  been  successful  simply  because  there 
we  have  applied  the  spirit  of  Germany  the 
military  machine,  and  not  the  spirit  of  the 
true  Germany,  the  educator,  builder,  moral 
leader. 

Both  our  philosophy  and  our  experience 
show  that  all  our  success  out  among  the 
peoples  of  the  world  is  won  with  service, 
gentleness,  fairness,  helpfulness,  under- 
standing of  human  nature — characteristic 
Germanism — ^^vhile  all  our  failures,  all  our 
disappointments,  all  our  disrepute,  have 
come  through  too  much  of  your  cult  of  au- 
tocratic military  dictatorship  and  mechan- 
ical rule  of  iron. 

76 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

We  have  learned  our  lesson,  even  if  you 
have  not  learned  yours. 

The  German  smile,  not  the  German 
sword,  wins  its  way  throughout  the  world. 

The  best  German  philosopher,  guide  and 
friend  is  Kant,  not  Krupp. 

Germany's  World-Empire  That  Was 

The  supremely  critical  moment  in  the 
history  of  the  German  nation  came  three 
years  ago  when  you  refused  all  appeals 
from  your  equals  to  say  the  one  word  that 
meant  peace,  and  unleashed  the  dogs  of 
war. 

Where  did  we  stand  then  as  a  na- 
tion? 

What  was  the  most  marked  achievement 
of  the  genius  of  our  people,  worked  out 
through  the  generations  that  had  just 
passed? 

It  is  a  simple,  well-known,  yet  inspiring 
story  of  progress. 

77 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

From  a  relatively  primitive  pastoral 
people,  delving  almost  wholly  in  the  soil 
and  the  forest,  we  had  rapidly  become  in- 
dustrial. 

We  acquired  skill  in  the  arts,  in  chemis- 
try, fabrication,  fashioning,  contriving. 
From  dealing  only  as  a  raw  tribe  with  raw 
materials  we  learned  to  transmute  the 
crude  into  the  finished  in  countless  attrac- 
tive and  useful  forms  and  sell  our  handi- 
work to  all  the  world. 

In  forty  years  our  exports  multiplied 
seven-fold. 

"We  had  become  one  of  the  world's  great- 
est workshops. 

A  large  and  vital  part  of  all  our  activi- 
ties, employment  of  a  large  and  well  re- 
munerated part  of  our  national  energies, 
were  here — ^making  in  our  workshops  all 
sorts  of  things  the  world  wanted  and  car- 
rying them  away  to  the  world's  markets  in 
German  ships.  Here  our  prosperity,  our 
78 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

growing  wealth,  our  augmenting  luxury, 
our  future,  were  centered. 

Our  empire  consisted  of  the  good  opinion 
the  remainder  of  the  world  held  of  us  as 
makers,  as  merchants,  its  good  opinion  of 
our  goods  and  wares,  its  confidence  in  us 
and  them,  our  good  relations  with  all  man- 
kind. 

Everywhere  our  salesmen,  merchants, 
bankers,  were  welcome.  No  discrimina- 
tions were  made  against  them  anywhere. 
They  enjoyed  world-wide  confidence  and 
respect.  In  the  battle  ground  of  human 
nature  and  the  peaceful  rivalry  of  open 
trade  we  Germans  knew  how  to  win  friends 
and  make  our  way. 

No  port  or  market  was  closed  to  us.  No 
political  power  was  used  to  shut  us  out  or 
impede  our  progress.  Where  imports  and 
duties  were  levied  we  paid  only  what  our 
rivals  paid. 

Briton,  perfidious  Albion,  which  you  had 
79 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

taught  us  to  believe  was  so  jealous  of  our 
success  that  she  had  determined  to  destroy 
us,  shut  us  out  of  the  sea,  crush  us  with  a 
war  intrigued  upon  us — this  wicked  rival 
not  only  threw  open  her  ports  everywhere 
in  the  world  to  our  ships  and  our  wares 
but  permitted  great  quantities  of  German 
goods  to  enter  her  home  territory  without 
the  payment  of  a  farthing  of  impost 
though  all  English  goods  entering  Ger- 
many must  pay  high  duties. 

This  is  where  we  stood  three  years  ago. 
In  the  great  world  game  of  producing, 
contriving,  combining,  adapting,  fabricat- 
ing, selling,  in  that  greatest  of  all  human 
rivalries  beside  which  your  pompous  or 
mysterious  diplomatic  intrigues  for  some 
vague  advantage  or  for  some  new  shading 
of  the  will-o'-the-wisp  balance  of  power  are 
as  the  blind-man's  buff  of  children — ^man- 
kind's manly  rivalry  of  Quality  and  Price 
— ^we  Germans  were  free,  unfettered,  f avor- 
80 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

getting  friend-making,  success-winning 
competitors. 

There  were  usefulness  and  prosperity, 
there  permanence  and  growth,  there  a 
greater  and  greater  future,  for  there  the 
genius  of  our  people  was  working  along 
natural  moral  lines  as  a  well-fitting  and 
welcome  factor  in  the  evolution  of  society 
and  the  inter-play  and  correlation  of  hu- 
man endeavor.  There  we  were  going  with 
the  stream  of  civilization,  not  trying  to 
make  it  go  our  way. 

That  was  an  empire  which  required  gen- 
erations of  German  industry  and  genius 
to  build,  a  world-empire  worth  having, 
worth  keeping. 

An  Empire  Won— and  Lost 

Where  stand  we  now  since  under  your 

mediaeval  leadership  we  have  reverted  to 

physical  violence  as  the  dominant  factor 

in  human  affairs,  tried  with  brute  force  to 

81 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

make  the  stream  run  uphill,  contrived  with 
almost  the  cunning  of  suicidal  mania  to  set 
civilization  and  ourselves  as  things  inim- 
ical and  apart? 

No  more  German  ships  upon  the  seas. 

Few  German  traders  in  the  world's 
marts. 

Few  or  no  products  of  the  great  Ger- 
man workshop  in  the  world's  markets. 

Our  workmen,  engineers,  salesmen,  mar- 
iners, merchants,  bankers,  artisans,  chem- 
ists, inventors,  our  men  of  skill,  industry, 
commerce,  productivity,  are  by  your  or- 
ders out  there  across  the  border  trying  to 
kill  our  neighbors  and  customers. 

Our  shops  and  factories  are  closed  or 
engaged  in  the  making  of  munitions  and 
weapons  of  slaughter. 

Our  skill  as  inventors,  chemists,  con- 
trivers, is  used  not  in  the  service  of  man- 
kind or  for  progress  in  the  arts  but  in  the 
destruction  of  our  fellow  men  not  alone 
82 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

by  the  conventional  weapons  but  by  means 
new  and  horrible  and  in  too  many  in- 
stances beyond  the  pale  even  of  war's 
none  too  scrupulous  decencies. 

We  have  lost  our  markets,  lost  our  cus- 
tomers, lost  our  friends,  lost  the  good  opin- 
ion of  the  world,  lost  all  that  we  had  striv- 
en for  three  generations  to  create. 

At  one  fell  stroke  you  tumbled  it  all 
into  ruins. 

You  struck  us  down  from  the  high  place 
we  had  won  among  the  world's  peoples  to 
the  level  of  a  barbaric,  war-like  tribe  of  the 
middle  ages — to  your  own  level. 

Was  it  a  Place  in  the  Sun  you  sought — 
or  in  a  Madhouse? 


83 


CHAPTER  VII 

WHAT    METHOD    IN    THE    MADNESS? 

You  whom  we  address  are  the  oligarchy 
of  aristocrats  and  militarists  who  gath- 
ered about  the  sovereign  and  sought  al- 
ways to  be  his  chief  councillors  and 
through  occupancy  of  that  vantage  ground 
gain  power  in  the  state. 

It  being  as  plain  as  day  that  freedom  of 
the  seas,  colonial  expansion,  a  place  in  the 
sun,  empire  over  the  waters  won  by  phys- 
ical force  were  mere  nightmares,  and  since 
as  more  or  less  rational  human  beings  you 
must  have  had  some  purpose  in  view  when 
you  willed  the  war,  some  definite  objective, 
we  are  compelled  to  analyze  your  motives 
in  the  light  of  such  evidence  as  we  have 
been  able  to  gather.  Such  analysis  leads 
us  to  these  conclusions: 
84 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

Your  underlying  aim  was  not  to  promote 
the  welfare  of  the  German  people  but  to 
perpetuate  the  power  you  had  acquired 
near  the  seat  of  highest  authority.  In  pur- 
suance thereof  you  made  the  sovereign's 
heir  the  figurehead  if  not  the  center  of 
your  cabal,  thereby  exerting  a  peculiar  in- 
fluence over  the  sovereign  himself  and  as- 
suring that  if  success  attended  your  in- 
trigue your  power  should  carry  over  from 
one  regime  to  its  successor. 

A  part  of  your  plan  was  to  check  the 
growth  of  all  liberalism  among  the  Ger- 
man people,  particularly  social  democracy 
or  any  other  development  that  tended  to 
make  the  nation  less  tribal,  more  modern, 
and  thereby  minimizing  or  destroying  your 
power. 

We  do  not  deny  your  right  as  a  factor 
in  the  state  to  seek  repression  by  proper 
means  of  any  growth  deemed  by  you  hurt- 
ful to  the  country.  We  do  not  deny  the 
85 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

right  of  any  political  party  to  champion 
the  policies  in  which  it  believes  and  to  op- 
pose others. 

But  we  do  deny  the  right  of  any  party, 
caste,  coterie,  clique,  oligarchy  or  author- 
ity whatsoever — and  in  this  category  we 
place  the  sovereign  himself — to  ruin  Ger- 
many in  order  to  make  sure  of  absolute 
rule  of  what  may  be  left  of  it. 

We  deny  the  right  of  any  power  over  us 
to  seek  repression  of  political  discussion 
and  political  evolution  within  the  country, 
by  smothering  them  in  the  blood  of  the  cit- 
izens shed  in  wanton  attack  upon  their 
neighbors. 

There  was  no  need  of  such  desperate 
preventive.  It  is  true  that  a  nation  is  like 
an  individual  in  that  it  cannot  stand  still. 
However  well  developed,  highly  organ- 
ized, it  must  go  forward  or  backward,  pro- 
gress or  revert.  We  Germans  were  in  the 
process  of  slow,  cautious  political  growth, 
86 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

so  slow,  so  cautious  that  all  change  was 
well-nigh  imperceptible,  unthreatening, 
without  menace  to  you  or  yours. 

To  stop  that  little  growth  you  who  want 
none  at  all,  want  none  at  all  not  because 
you  think  a  little  may  hurt  Germany,  but 
because  you  fear  it  may  in  time  hurt  you, 
hurled  us  headlong  backward  two  cen- 
turies. 

"We  do  not  believe  because  it  is  incred- 
ible, too  monstrous,  that  you  knew  what 
you  were  doing,  knew  that  you  were  driv- 
ing the  nation  to  the  fate  which  now  has 
overtaken  it.  Certain  it  is  you  did  not 
foresee  that  instead  of  brushing  aside  all 
that  might  possibly  and  eventually  de- 
tract a  little  from  the  completeness  of  your 
ascendancy  you  were  making  it  impossible 
for  the  nation  to  leave  any  power  what- 
ever in  your  hands. 

In  your  madness  there  must  have  been 
some  method,  some  dream  at  least  of 
87 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

achieving  something  tangible  that  could  be 
made  to  pass  as  recompense  to  the  people 
for  the  terrible  price  they  had  paid  for  it. 
We  think  we  know  what  that  was. 

Hi^hwaymanry    Hang^ed    with    Its    Own 
Hemp 

While  to  us  the  people  of  Germany  our 
military  establishment  was  ever  a  means 
of  defense,  and  nothing  more,  to  you  of 
the  oligarchy  it  was  always  that,  and  much 
more.  It  was  an  instrument  in  your  hands, 
in  part  a  toy  to  play  with,  an  ornament,  a 
means  to  pomp  and  display,  an  adjunct 
and  parade  of  titled  dignity  and  epauletted 
self-importance,  a  trade  fit  for  aristocracy, 
an  open  road  to  class  superiority. 

To  you  it  was  more  than  toy  or  orna- 
ment, it  was  an  instrument  with  which  you 
could  maintain  the  power  of  caste  in  the 
state. 

It  was  more  than  this,  a  weapon  you 
88 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

were  fond  of  using  in  playing  your  game 
of  diplomacy  so  mysterious  to  us  humble 
laymen  but  dear  to  your  more  lofty  souls, 
your  game  of  shaking  the  mailed  fist,  rat- 
tling the  sabre,  displaying  the  shining  ar- 
mor, frightening  your  timid  neighbor, 
making  yourselves  the  most  important, 
most  talked-of,  most  feared  men  in  all  Eu- 
rope— your  idea  of  true  greatness. 

And  in  the  end,  unfortunately,  to  you 
it  became  yet  something  more,  a  bludgeon 
with  which  you  hoped  to  beat  down  the 
walls  that  stood  between  you  and  realiza- 
tion of  your  festering,  cankering,  finally 
all-consuming  ambition  to  be  masters  of 
Europe,  and  through  mastery  of  Europe 
the  headmen  of  all  the  world. 

It  is  probably  true  that  in  the  beginning 
no  such  madness  was  in  your  veins,  that 
for  a  long  time  you  stood  square  with  us — 
we  know  our  sovereign  did — for  defense 
alone.  But  as  you  went  on  shaking  the 
89 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

mailed  fist  in  the  face  of  Europe,  playing 
the  game  you  loved  so  well,  success  brought 
its  fascination,  lured  you  farther.  In  time 
the  glitter  of  shining  armor  and  glint  from 
the  bayonets  of  which  all  Europe  stood 
afraid  dazzled  your  eyes,  affected  your 
brain.  Even  the  criticisms  of  those  who 
played  the  game  against  you  and  did  not 
love  you  because  you  so  often  beat  them, 
that  you  were  war-lords,  that  you  fancied 
yourselves  strong  enough  to  conquer  the 
world,  in  the  fullness  of  time  augmented 
your  vanity,  increased  your  obsession,  add- 
ed fuel  to  the  smouldering  fires  of  your  am- 
bition, led  you  to  the  final  and  fatuous  con- 
clusion that  perhaps  after  all  it  was  true 
your  divine  mission  on  earth  was  conquest 
of  mankind  in  the  name  of  German  culture, 
the  world  did  indeed  lie  at  your  feet  when- 
ever you  cared  to  take  bludgeon  in  hand 
and  go  forth  seeking  it. 

We  know  now  there  were  various  occa- 
90 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

sions  in  recent  crises  of  the  diplomatic 
world  politics  game  of  frightening  your 
neighbor  into  compliance  with  your  will 
when  you  thought  seriously  of  precipitat- 
ing the  fateful  day.  One  thing  or  another, 
chiefly  the  sovereign  who  long  was  true  to 
his  better  self  and  his  country,  restrained 
and  prevented  you.  But  it  was  only  a 
question  of  time  when  your  fermenting 
fever  of  ambition  and  vanity  would  seize 
what  to  you  looked  like  a  favorable  mo- 
ment, override  all  obstacles,  precipitate 
the  cataclysm. 

We  wish  to  be  just  to  you.  Therefore, 
we  say  what  seems  to  us  to  be  true,  that 
you  had  so  long  spent  your  energies  and 
talents  in  perfecting  the  great  military  ma- 
chine under  your  control,  had  with  such 
persistent  skill  studied  the  growth  of  rival 
military  machines  and  with  such  care 
mapped  out  your  programme  in  case  of 
conflict  between  them,  in  time  the  inevita- 
91 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

ble  psychological  effect  upon  you  was  a 
conviction  that  such  conflict  was  sure  to 
come,  was  inevitable,  could  not  be  averted. 
And  with  this  conviction  you  deemed  it 
your  duty  to  seize  a  favorable  moment,  to 
precipitate  what  to  you  was  the  inevitable 
before  your  rivals  could  reach  a  state  of 
better  preparedness.  It  was  thus  you  jus- 
tified yourselves,  and  with  this  you  gath- 
ered closer  and  closer  about  the  sovereign, 
pressing  harder  and  harder  upon  his  judg- 
ment and  will,  awaiting  the  hour  when  you 
might  have  your  way. 

Sarajevo  was  to  you  the  long-awaited 
signal.  You  were  ready,  you  were  eager, 
you  lost  little  time.  You  made  sure  that  in 
any  event  our  Austrian  ally  would  stand 
by.  You  thought  you  made  sure  that  in  no 
event  would  England  enter  the  struggle — 
but  for  that  colossal  blunder  and  self-de- 
ception we  cannot  conceive  that  even  mad- 
ness such  as  yours  could  have  driven  you 
92 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

on,  for  with  England  among  our  foes,  the 
oceans  barred,  Germany  shut  in,  walls  all 
about  us  on  land  and  sea,  the  end  must 
have  been  plain  even  to  eyes  like  yours, 
reddened  and  distorted  with  ambition's 
fitful  fever. 

During  the  absence  of  the  sovereign  in 
northern  waters  you  skillfully  prepared  a 
purported  state  of  facts  to  lay  before  him 
on  his  hurried  return ;  Austria  was  ready, 
Italy  would  either  join  you  or  remain  neu- 
tral, England  would  risk  nothing,  there 
were  only  Russia  and  France  to  beat,  Rus- 
sia which  was  not  only  determined  to  make 
war  to  crush  out  internal  revolution  but 
had  mobilized  and  actually  crossed  our 
frontier,  France  that  was  mad  for  revanche 
and  rushing  to  the  aid  of  her  eastern  ally. 

Was  the  Kaiser  Also  Deceived? 

All  this  we  know   came  with   painful 
shock  and  surprise  to  the  sovereign.    We 
93 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

know  that  at  first  he  put  against  you  his 
old-time  will  for  peace.  But  you  convinced 
him  the  die  was  cast,  that  our  enemy  had 
left  him  no  choice,  the  fault  before  man- 
kind and  history  would  be  that  of  Russia, 
it  could  not  be  laid  at  Germany's  door. 
You  deceived  the  Kaiser,  who  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century  had  stood  with  us  of  the  peo- 
ple against  you  of  the  caste,  just  as  a  little 
later  you  deceived  us  and  tried  to  deceive 
the  world.  With  misgivings,  with  soul- 
harrowing  doubts,  and  we  are  informed 
with  tears  in  his  eyes,  the  Emperor  yield- 
ed, his  resoluteness  was  broken  down  in 
the  moment  of  supreme  crisis,  he  failed  to 
speak  the  one  word  which  England  had  im- 
plored and  which  would  have  kept  the 
peace — the  die  was  indeed  cast,  the  day 
had  come. 

You  had  won.    After  all  these  years  of 
preparation,  planning,  plotting,  intriguing, 
you  had  at  last  your  great  chance. 
94 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

You  of  the  cabal  had  cajoled  your  mas- 
ter with  cunning. 

You  of  the  caste  had  with  a  coup  made 
an  empire  your  servant. 

You  high  well-bom  of  the  castle  had  hyp- 
notized us  lowly  ones  beyond  the  moat 
with  the  legend  that  we  who  had  made  the 
empire  were  rallying  to  its  defense,  glad 
and  proud  to  be  your  warriors. 

And  now  for  your  great  triumph. 

To  you  it  seemed  an  easy  task.  Behind 
you  was  a  united,  an  enthusiastic  people, 
in  your  hands  the  greatest  army  in  the 
world,  before  you  only  the  Eussians  and 
the  French  who  you  well  knew  were  but 
ill-prepared. 

By  crossing  Belgium,  which  would  not 
dare  offer  resistance,  in  sixty  days  Paris 
would  be  in  your  hands. 

With  France  prostrate  through  loss  of 
her  nerve  center  and  paralysis  of  her  na- 
tional organization  and  communications, 
95 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

she  would  be  forced  to  early  capitulation, 
make  the  best  terms  you  would  grant  her, 
give  up  her  coal  and  ore  lands,  yield  her 
richest  industrial  section,  pay  an  enor- 
mous indemnity,  twice  or  thrice  the  whole 
cost  of  the  expedition  to  Germany. 

With  France  humbled,  put  out  of  the 
fight,  reduced  to  a  second-rate  power, 
there  remained  only  ponderous,  slow-mov- 
ing, inefficient,  badly  organized  Russia. 
She  eould  be  easily  disposed  of,  her  inter- 
nal revolution  would  weaken  her  arm,  our 
German  intrigue  well  intrenched  at  her 
capital  and  ramifying  within  her  govern- 
ment would  help  to  bring  about  a  speedy 
peace. 

By  Christmas,  you  thought,  it  would  all 
be  over.  "With  military  campaigns  but  lit- 
tle more  arduous  than  the  usual  autumn 
maneuvers  Germany  would  be  trium- 
phant; would  gain  territory;  the  treasury 
would  again  be  filled  to  overflowing  with 
96 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

French  gold;  a  joyful  German  people 
would  give  over  for  a  long  time  if  not  for 
always  all  their  vague  notions  of  political 
progress;  your  importance  and  power  at 
home  and  abroad  would  be  immeasurably 
augmented;  all  Europe  would  tremble 
whenever  you  opened  your  mouth  or 
stirred  your  sabre  ever  so  lightly;  timid, 
selfish,  frightened  England  would  come 
seeking  favor  with  you  the  new  leaders  in 
world  power,  imploring  you  not  to  make  it 
her  turn  next. 

The  Road  to  Remorse  and  Retribution 

Verging  upon  madness  as  all  this  seems 
to  us  now  and  must  seem  to  you  in  these 
our  soberer  hours,  it  is  only  fair  to  say  we 
believe  you  really  thought  it  all  possible, 
thought  the  easy  profits  of  the  venture 
would  loom  so  large  on  the  credit  side  of 
the  ledger  that  we  the  people  would  sup- 
press all  thought  of  motive  and  morality  in 
97 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

our  national  pride  and  glory  in  national 
success. 

Of  course  you  know,  and  all  the  world 
should  know,  that  if  you  had  frankly  told 
us  what  your  real  purpose  was,  told  us  in 
time  so  that  opportunity  remained  for  us 
to  speak  our  minds,  all  Germany  would 
have  done  whatever  it  could,  be  that  much 
or  little,  and  we  see  now  it  must  necessar- 
ily have  been  all  too  little,  to  stay  your 
hands.  We  see  now  that  when  in  that  fate- 
ful moment  you  captured  preeminent  au- 
thority you  captured  us,  our  system  made 
us  children,  our  system  changed  us  in  a 
twinkling  from  men  and  women  of  mod- 
em times  to  feudal  tribesmen  under  the 
absolute  command  of  warlike  chiefs. 

You  were  supreme  masters  not  only  of 
our  lives  and  property  but  of  our  morality. 
You  made  us  your  co-partners  before  the 
world  in  a  venture  of  international  high- 
waymanry,  you  made  us  a  tribe  of 
98 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

modern,  prepared,  organized,  efficient, 
formidable  barbarians  sallying  forth  to 
terrorize,  subjugate,  rob  neighboring 
tribes. 

And  what  a  price  we  who  are  Germany, 
we  artisans  and  toilers  and  shopkeepers 
from  beyond  the  moat,  have  paid  for  our 
obsession  of  faith  in  you  of  the  princely 
castle,  for  your  obsession  of  faith  in  physi- 
cal force  as  the  dominant  factor  in  mod- 
ern civilization,  for  your  mad  vanity  and 
insane  ambition,  for  your  lack  of  even  the 
rudiments  of  understanding  of  what  mod- 
ern civilization  is  really  made  of,  of  the 
underlying  moral  forces  of  developed  man 
which  must  rally  with  ever-increasing 
might  and  resoluteness  to  defeat  and  crush 
you. 

We  who  made  Germany  what  it  is,  we 

of  the  farm,  the  shop,  the  machine,  the 

factory,  the  school,  the  mart,  the  ships, 

we  who  had  been  out  in  the  great  world 

99 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

beyond  and  learned  to  know  something  of 
that  world's  people  and  the  deep  currents, 
the  foundation  convictions,  the  self-re- 
liance, the  manhood,  the  strength  of  will 
and  resistance  among  them  when  those 
basic  convictions  are  placed  in  jeopardy, 
we  who  had  met  and  measured  other  men 
in  the  field  of  open  commercial  and  indus- 
trial competition,  we  Germans  who  work 
and  think  and  achieve  in  and  of  the  age  in 
which  we  live — 

We  could  have  told  you  of  the  caste  and 
the  castle,  you  of  the  barracks  and  the 
bureaus,  you  who  had  mastered  your  mar- 
tial tactics  but  knew  not  human  nature, 
you  who  were  skilled  in  the  art  of  destroy- 
ing life  but  did  not  know  what  life  was, 
you  titled  diplomatists  adroit  in  the  super- 
ficial game  of  international  intrigue  who 
never  comprehended  the  vast  moral  forces 
and  indestructible  convictions  of  the  mil- 
lions of  despised  and  lowly  democracies 
100 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

massed  down  near  the  soil  of  the  lands 
they  played  the  game  with — 

We  could  have  told  you  feudal  knights 
in  armor  that  even  with  modem  armies 
and  modern  weapons  and  the  valor  and 
efficiency  of  a  highly  developed  modem 
people  in  your  hands  how  impossible  was 
the  venture  you  set  out  upon  with  such 
light  hearts,  we  could  have  told  you  down 
what  road  to  ruin  and  retribution  you 
were  plunging,  pushing  us  before  you. 

But  you  did  not  ask  us — ^you  told  us  what 
was  not  true. 

You  staked  us  and  our  all  in  a  gambler's 
cast  without  letting  us  know  what  we  were 
playing  for. 

Triumph  of  your  plot  might  have 
brought  to  you  something  which  to  you 
might  have  seemed  worth  having,  but 
could  not  have  brought  to  ust  anything 
which  would  to  us  have  seemed  worth  hav- 
ing after  our  blood  had  cooled. 
101 


>    '^    «  ♦•*  >  ^*„ 

THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

For  well  do  we  know  that  the  road  along 
which  civilization  marches  is  under  the 
rule  of  moral  law,  that  enduring  thrift 
in  the  game  of  highwaymanry,  individual 
or  international,  is  impossible  upon  it. 
A  little  loot  the  most  desperate  may  tem- 
porarily gain,  but  at  what  a  price,  how 
hard  to  keep. 

You  may  be  content  to  be  outlaw,  with  a 
prize  set  on  your  heads,  but  we  the  peo- 
ple of  Germany  are  not. 

Our  system,  our  loyalty  to  that  system, 
to  our  country,  aided  your  deceit  in  mak- 
ing us  your  partners  before  the  eyes  of 
an  outraged  world.  You .  cannot  say  we 
did  not  play  fair  with  you.  While  the 
mad  adventure  was  on  we  upheld  your 
hands.  A  million  graves  of  Germans  are 
the  monuments  to  our  tribal  fidelity. 

But  you  did  not  play  fair  with  us.  You 
made  us  fight  for  something  which  did 
not  exist.  You  made  us  fight  for  things 
102 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

we  abhor.  You  made  us  fight  for  things 
which  were  not  only  ignoble,  unworthy, 
but  impossible.  You  made  us  victims  of 
a  cause  which  would  have  been  a  failure 
even  if  it  had  won. 

The  co-partnership  that  existed  between 
you  and  us  must  be  eternally  dissolved. 


103 


CHAPTER   VIII 

GERMAN    MANHOOD   SPEAKS   TO   THE   WORLD 

(Address  Adopted  hy  the  Congress  of  Del- 
egates from  Twenty-six  German  States 
Held  at  Berlin) 

To  all  the  peoples  of  the  civilized  world, 
and  to  the  pages  of  history,  we  the  men 
and  women  of  Germany  in  this  bitter  hour 
of  our  national  defeat — nay,  in  this  glor- 
ious hour  of  our  regeneration  and  refor- 
mation through  suffering  and  sacrifice — 
wish  to  speak: 

We  seek  to  escape  none  of  our  just  re- 
sponsibility for  the  disaster  that  has  been 
inflicted  upon  the  world.  We  are  not 
blameless.  We,  too,  have  been  mad.  Too 
long  we  failed  to  open  our  eyes  to  what  was 
being  done  in  our  name  and  with  our 
strength,  too  long  we  permitted  ourselves 
104 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

to  be  victimized  by  our  system,  too  long 
were  we  blindly  passionate,  irrational,  bit- 
ter, unreasoning. 

Too  long  did  we  succumb  to  that  pecul- 
iar epidemic  of  mental  obsession  which  is 
one  of  the  ills  all  excessive  nationalism  is 
heir  to  and  which  in  the  past  has  engulfed 
other  masses  of  men  and  women — ^we  are 
not  alone  in  this  weakness — that  spiritual 
stampede  which  starts  up  in  a  people  with 
some  irritating  cause  and  for  a  time  is  all- 
embracing,  all-compelling,  mad-rushing, 
sweeping  away  all  rational  standards,  de- 
stroying all  logical  landmarks,  leaving  in- 
tact no  places  of  mental  refuge  or  read- 
justment— ^nothing  for  anyone  to  do  but 
rush  on,  shouting,  gesticulating,  cursing, 
striking,  unable  to  pause  if  you  wish  be- 
cause all  about  you  are  doing  the  same, 
pushing,  pulling,  inflaming,  carrying  you 
along  in  the  torrent,  hating  all  that  is  not 
for  and  of  you,  loving  only  your  own  and 
105 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

yourselves,  seeing  only  with  red  eyes,  hear- 
ing with  but  one  ear,  thinking  only  with 
a  brain  surcharged  with  heated  blood, 
the  will  fierce  with  passion,  all  muscles, 
nerves,  sinews  quivering  with  fever,  the 
soul  itself  drunk  with  the  joyful,  justifying 
faith  that  all  this  is  patriotism,  love  of 
country,  duty,  devotion  to  the  land  of  our 
fathers. 

But  now  the  spiritual  stampede  is  at 
an  end.  We  the  people  of  Germany  are 
ourselves  again.  Gone  are  all  the  fever 
and  passion.  We  think  calmly  and  coolly, 
we  see  with  wide  open  eyes. 

Believe  us,  fair-minded,  just,  generous 
peoples  of  the  world,  serene  and  judicial 
in  your  happiness  and  prosperity,  un- 
scathed by  the  desperation  of  war  and  un- 
embittered  by  the  falsity  of  your  leaders 
— ^we  pray  that  your  national  or  tribal 
spirit  may  never  suffer  like  access  of  the 
mass-madness  from  which  we  are  just  now 
106 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLTC 

recovered — it  is  with  humility  and  contri- 
tion we  ask  pardon  for  our  errors,  and  beg 
you  to  remember  the  great  stress  that  was 
put  upon  us,  the  hard  pressure  of  habit, 
tradition  and  long  inculcated  feeling  that 
bore  down  upon  us  in  a  crisis,  and  be  mer- 
ciful in  your  judgment  of  us. 

"We  regret  that  we  did  not  betimes  see 
the  truth  and  force  our  leaders  to  aban- 
don their  unrighteous  adventure. 

We  regret  that  having  begun  a  war  with 
criminal  motive  they  prosecuted  it  with 
criminal  methods. 

We  regret  that  poor  Belgium  was  in- 
vaded, violated,  subjugated,  stricken  down. 
The  crossing  of  Belgian  territory  by  our 
troops  we  had  justified  on  the  ground  of 
military  necessity  as  long  as  we  believed 
our  war  was  solely  one  of  self-defence,  as 
long  as  we  believed  we  were  fighting  for 
our  right  to  exist.  We  justify  it  no  more, 
and  pledge  ourselves  that  Belgium  shall 
107 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

have  all  the  atonement  in  our  power  to 
give. 

We  regret  all  wanton  and  unnecessary- 
destruction  of  Belgian  and  French  cathe- 
drals and  other  works  of  art  and  monu- 
ments of  history  by  our  troops,  or  the  part 
of  our  troops  which  were  imbued  more 
with  the  militaristic  spirit  of  our  leaders 
than  with  true  German  veneration  for  such 
works  of  man,  and  pledge  that  our  gov- 
ernment will  immediately  join  other  gov- 
ernments in  creating  a  commission  to  ad- 
judge the  reparation  due  from  us  for  these 
wrongs. 

The  Crime  of  the  Lusitania 

Our  regret  is  great  and  deep  for  the 
crime  of  the  sinking  of  the  peaceful  ship 
Lusitania,  and  for  the  sinking  of  other  non- 
combatant  ships  with  loss  of  human  lives. 
We  bitterly  repent  that  in  our  feverish, 
passionate  hours  we  justified  that  crime 
108 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

and  even  fell  to  the  depth  of  glorifying  in 
it  as  a  triumph  for  our  navy.  It  is  diffi- 
cult for  us  now  in  our  present  calmness 
to  realize  that  we  ever  gloated  over  the 
deliberate  murder  of  a  thousand  or  more 
innocent  men,  women  and  children,  and 
now  we  see  only  too  clearly  why  you  of 
civilization  not  only  abhorred  that  crime 
but  detested  us  for  giving  countenance  and 
approval  to  it.  Our  madness  must  then 
have  been  at  its  climax. 

Then  we  tried  to  convince  ourselves  that 
our  military  leaders  had  a  right  to  sink  the 
Lusitania  because  she  carried  ammunition 
destined  for  use  in  killing  our  soldiers. 
Now  that  our  vision  has  cleared  we  see  the 
fallacy  of  that  argument.  No  civilized  mil- 
itary power  destroys  a  city  or  town  and 
all  its  non-combatant  inhabitants,  without 
warning  or  opportunity  to  seek  safety,  sim- 
ply to  destroy  munitions  of  war  stored  in 
those  places.  The  Lusitania  was  a  floating 
109 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

city.  By  the  laws  of  war  we  had  the  right 
to  get  the  munitions  out  of  her  cargo  and 
destroy  them  if  we  could  do  so  without  kill- 
ing the  people  who  were  her  passengers, 
but  not  to  kill  the  people  in  order  to  get  the 
munitions. 

If  the  excuses  which  we  formerly  ap- 
plied to  this  crime  and  the  principle  in- 
volved therein  are  held  to  be  sound  guide 
in  military  operations,  an  invading  army 
is  at  liberty,  without  warning,  to  destroy 
any  city  or  town  that  lies  in  its  path,  beat 
down  all  the  buildings,  bury  in  the  ruins 
all  the  inhabitants,  in  order  to  make  sure 
military  material  in  such  towns  shall  not 
afterward  be  used  by  the  enemy's  troops. 
An  invading  army  could  go  further:  It 
could  say  that  the  people  along  its  line  of 
march  were  of  the  enemy,  and  whilst  at 
the  moment  non-combatant  would  at  the 
first  opportunity  give  aid,  succour,  ma- 
terial, to  the  combative  forces  of  their  na- 
110 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

tive  land,  and  therefore  stand  them  up  by 
the  side  of  the  line  of  march  and  shoot 
them  down,  men  who  might  become  enemy- 
soldiers,  women  who  might  bear  enemy- 
soldiers,  children  who  might  live  to  be- 
come enemies. 

This  is  savagery  pure  and  simple,  a  dis- 
grace to  civilized  war. 

The  sinking  of  the  Lusitania  was  sav- 
agery, pure  and  simple,  a  disgrace  to  the 
nation  responsible  for  it. 

For  that  crime  we  feel  bitter  remorse. 
Direct  and  ample  reparation  from  us  to  its 
victims  and  the  families  of  its  victims  is 
impossible.  But  atonement  of  a  higher  and 
nobler  sort  we  shall  render  before  all  the 
world. 

More  Crimes— More  Falsehoods 

We  regret  the  Zeppelin  raids  on  English 
towns  and  villages  and  the  bombardment 
by  our  cruisers  of  English  ports.    We  were 
111 


THE  OERMAN  REPUBLIC 

told  by  our  military  authorities  that  these 
attacks  were  justified  by  the  definite  mili- 
tary damage  inflicted  upon  our  enemy. 
Now  we  know  this  was  not  true,  that  the 
definite  military  loss  was  trifling,  and  we 
see  that  it  must  have  been  so  because 
bombs  dropped  in  the  night  from  ships 
high  in  the  air  above  the  vaguely  discern- 
ible land  below,  and  shells  fired  from  cruis- 
ers well  out  to  sea,  were  of  necessity 
dropped  or  fired  indiscriminately,  and  such 
indiscriminate  random  attack  must  inevi- 
tably inflict  far  more  hurt  upon  peaceful 
civilians  than  upon  military  works,  if  any 
were  there. 

Now  that  we  have  better  information  we 
repent  that  through  such  blind  assaults 
innocent  men,  women  and  children  were 
murdered.  We  German  people  called  to 
war  have  made  war  as  warriors  upon  war- 
riors, and  we  have  waged  it  valiantly,  we 
believe,  against  a  valiant  foe.  But  we  have 
112 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

not  wished  to  make  war  upon  women  and 
children,  for  that  is  savagery,  and  we  are 
not  savages.  Wherever  our  enemy  has 
made  like  savage  and  indiscriminate  as- 
saults— he  is  equally  guilty  and  should  fall 
under  the  same  condemnation. 

We  regret  the  use  of  poisonous  gases  and 
liquid  fire  by  our  armies  because  we  do 
not  regard  such  instruments  a  proper  part 
of  civilized  warfare,  regardless  of  the  truth 
or  falsity  of  what  our  leaders  told  us,  that 
the  enemy  was  the  first  to  employ  them. 
If  the  enemy  first  used  them  he  also  is 
guilty ;  but  even  in  such  case  it  would  bet- 
ter satisfy  the  conscience  and  the  chivalry 
of  our  people  if  our  leaders  had  protested 
against  such  crimes  instead  of  imitating 
them. 

We  regret  that  German  ingenuity,  in- 
ventiveness, skill  in  the  arts  and  chemistry 
so  often  signally  shown  in  the  good  works 
of  mankind  in  saving  life,  curing  disease, 
113 


THE  GEEMAN  KEPUBLIC 

preventing  contagion,  minimizing  pain,  in 
adaptation  of  mechanics  and  the  utilization 
of  physical  forces  and  materials  for  man's 
benefit  and  comfort,  on  land  and  sea  and 
in  man's  long  dream  of  conquest  of  the 
air,  should  have  been  prostituted  in  the 
recent  mad  struggle  to  the  development 
of  new  and  hideous  ways  of  slaughtering 
our  fellow  man. 

We  regret  that  our  military  authorities 
fell  so  low  in  the  scale  of  morality  and 
decency  as  to  give  a  traitor  emissary  from 
an  enemy  country  access  to  our  prison 
camps  for  the  known  purpose  of  bribing 
his  fellow  countrymen  under  our  protection 
to  turn  traitor  like  himself;  and  that  our 
authorities  abetted  this  vile  effort  by  in- 
flicting upon  prisoners  who  refused  to  turn 
traitor  the  severe  punishment  of  reduced 
rations.  If  our  brave  soldiers,  by  the  ac- 
cident of  war  made  prisoners  in  enemy 
country,  were  tempted  to  turn  traitor  to 
114 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

Germany  and  subjected  to  hunger  as  pun- 
ishment for  loyalty  to  Germany,  even  our 
military  authorities  would  denounce  the 
enemy  as  guilty  of  shameful  and  dishon- 
orable conduct. 


115 


CHAPTER   IX 

A   SPECIAL   WORD   TO   AMERICA 

We  now  regret  tliat  during  the  period 
of  our  blindness  we  were  embittered  to- 
ward America  for  selling  munitions  of 
war  to  our  enemies.  "We  know  now,  and  ac- 
knowledge, as  we  should  have  seen  and 
acknowledged  then,  that  such  sale  of  mu- 
nitions of  war  to  any  or  all  belligerents  has 
been  the  established  and  legal  practise  of 
nations,  including  ourselves,  for  many  gen- 
erations. We  recognize  now  that  such  sale 
was  free  and  fair  under  international  law, 
and  that  to  suspend  the  law  and  abandon 
sale  in  favor  to  a  particular  belligerent 
would  have  meant  nothing  but  unn<eutral- 
ity. 

We  freely  confess  that  if  jGfeTffiapy  had 
116 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

required  munitions  from  America,  and  had 
enjoyed  control  of  the  seas  and  therefore 
ability  not  only  to  buy  munitions  but  to 
carry  them  home,  and  if  America  had  re- 
fused to  sell  to  us  because  our  rivals  with- 
out control  of  the  sea  could  not  also  buy 
and  carry  home,  that  we  should  have  de- 
nounced as  an  act  of  unneutrality  deliber- 
ately unfriendly  to  us. 

It  would  have  been  deliberately  unneu- 
tral and  unfriendly  to  us  because  a  con- 
scious effort  of  the  part  of  the  United 
States  to  deprive  us  of  the  advantage  over 
our  enemies  which  was  rightly  ours  under 
international  law  through  our  power  on 
the  sea. 

"We  see  now  what  we  should  have  seen 
long  ago,  and  would  have  seen  had  not 
our  eyes  been  blinded  by  passion,  that  the 
right  to  buy  and  the  right  to  sell  are  both 
free,  well  established,  indisputable,  and 
that  in  the  exercise  of  these  rights  all  na- 
117 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

tions  are  equal  before  the  law.  If  all  the 
belligerents  in  a  war  are  able  to  buy  and 
carry  home,  the  equality  continues.  But  if 
some  are  able  to  carry  home  and  others 
are  not,  that  is  a  circumstance  over  which 
the  seller  has  no  control  and  no  responsi- 
bility. The  inequality  of  power  to  carry 
home  is  an  incident  of  the  relative  mili- 
tary or  sea  power  of  the  belligerents,  and 
if  the  seller  changes  the  law  and  practise 
under  the  law  at  his  own  pecuniary  loss 
and  refuses  to  sell  to  those  who  have  the 
power  to  carry  away  he  violates  law  and 
neutrality  by  trying  to  help  the  weak  on 
the  sea  and  deprive  the  strong  on  the  sea 
of  the  legitimate  fruit  of  his  naval  enter- 
prise. He  thereby  makes  himself  the  ally 
of  one  and  the  enemy  of  the  other. 

All  this  now  seems  to  us  so  obvious, 

simple,  elementary,  we  are  surprised  that 

even  in  our  most  irrational  hours  we  should 

have  been  so  childish  and  unjust  as  to  ac- 

118 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

cuse  America  of  wrong-doing  in  this  con- 
nection. 

For  now  we  see  that  instead  of  blaming 
America  for  her  attitude  toward  us  we 
should  be  grateful  to  her  for  her  patience 
and  forbearance  with  us. 

We  regret  that  some  of  our  blood  broth- 
ers, citizens  of  the  United  States,  infected 
with  the  same  mental  obsession  that  had 
engulfed  us  at  home,  turned  against  their 
own  country  in  their  mad  passion  for  our 
German  cause,  insulted  the  marvelously 
patient  head  of  their  government,  used 
their  freedom  of  action  and  movement  in 
their  free  country  to  foment -disturbances, 
strikes,  arsons,  explosions,  murders,  which 
in  their  passing  madness  they  thought 
might  help  us  in  our  struggle. 

We  thank  the  American  people  for  their 
sublime  patience  amidst  all  this  violation 
of  their  laws  and  offense  against  their  dig- 
nity and  neutrality. 

119 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC- 

America's  Unprecedented  Patience 

When  our  authorities  deliberately  sank 
the  Lusitania  and  murdered  more  than  a 
hundred  innocent  American  citizens,  the 
American  government  at  any  other  period 
of  its  career,  if  we  have  read  aright  our 
history,  or  any  other  self-respecting  gov- 
ernment in  the  world  in  like  case,  would 
have  demanded  instant  apology  and  repa- 
ration under  penalty  of  war. 

When  our  government  met  the  moderate 
and  not  unfriendly  demand  the  American 
government  did  make  with  evasion  and  in- 
sincerity, when  we  the  people  of  Germany 
in  our  distrait  state  of  mind,  we  say  it  in 
shame,  supported  our  authorities,  justified 
their  crime,  and  said  as  the  American  citi- 
zens had  been  warned  they  took  their  lives 
in  their  own  hands  and  brought  on  their 
own  destruction — when  all  this  was  fol- 
lowed by  more  crimes  and  like  fatuous 
120 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

justification,  by  more  evasion  and  insin- 
cerity and  brutal  indifference  to  the  decen- 
cies of  life,  we  now  confess  in  all  humility 
that  the  natural  effect  immediately  fol- 
lowed among  us : 

"We  despised  the  Americans  for  their 
weakness,  we  had  only  contempt  for  their 
patience,  and  many  of  us  urged  our  leaders 
to  go  on  butchering  Americans  or  any  other 
neutrals  who  chanced  to  place  themselves 
in  the  path  of  our  policy  of  striking  terror 
to  the  hearts  of  our  enemies. 

But  now  that  our  minds  have  found 
equilibrium  and  our  moral  perceptions 
again  work  normally,  we  understand  full 
well  how  all  these  crimes  and  all  their  at- 
tendant offenses  must  have  horrified,  sad- 
dened, angered  all  on-looking  mankind  and 
filled  the  hearts  of  good  men  everywhere 
in  the  world  with  inexpressible  detestation 
of  the  criminals  and  of  all  who  defended 
the  crimes. 

121 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

We  see  now  that  we  Germans  should  fall 
upon  our  knees  and  humbly  give  thanks 
that  all  neutral  mankind  did  not  vent  their 
natural  and  justifiable  abhorrence  by  ris- 
ing together  and  declaring  us  outlaw  of 
civilization,  a  wild  beast  afflicted  with  rab- 
ies running  amuck  whose  extermination  or 
incarceration  was  the  first  and  foremost 
task  of  the  world. 

Even  now  we  marvel  that  if  the  great 
Christian  peoples  stopped  short  of  employ- 
ing physical  force  in  our  suppression  and 
chastisement,  they  did  not  at  least  compel 
their  governments  to  break  off  all  neigh- 
borly relations  with  our  criminal  leaders 
and  thus  put  the  stigma  of  civilization's 
condemnation  and  history's  judgment  upon 
our  offenses  against  the  laws  of  God  and 
humanity. 


122 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

The  Great  Crime  Against  Civilization 

We  marvel  the  more  that  this  just  pun- 
ishment was  not  inflicted  upon  us  because 
now,  with  sanity  restored,  we  realize  only 
too  well  the  blackness  of  the  crime  which 
had  been  committed  in  our  name  against 
civilization  of  which  the  crime  of  the  Lusi- 
tania^  great  as  it  was,  was  only  sympto- 
matic. 

This  greatest  of  crimes  was  the  plot  of 
our  ruling  caste  to  plunge  the  world  back- 
ward two  centuries  and  revert  to  physical 
force  as  the  all-controlling  factor  in  the 
relations  of  men. 

Not  only  to  set  up  physical  force  as  dom- 
inant as  in  the  savage  age  of  man's  career, 
but  with  it  the  doctrine  that  it  is  right,  de- 
fensible, necessary,  moral,  not  only  to  make 
physical  strength  superior  to  moral 
strength,  but  to  make  it  morality  itself. 

And  stopping  not  there,  not  only  set- 
123 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

ting  up  physical  force  as  supreme  in  power 
and  superior  in  right,  but  along  with  this 
the  theory  that  physical  force  is  best  or- 
ganized, directed  and  applied  by  absolu- 
tism in  government,  resting  not  upon  the 
popular  will  or  public  opinion  or  moral 
force  as  evolved  and  perfected  by  so- 
ciety, but  upon  hereditary  or  accidental 
chieftainship  upheld  by  the  legions  of 
Might. 

The  neutral  world  must  indeed  have 
looked  upon  our  great  war  as  a  great  crime, 
greater  than  a  mere  adventure  in  interna- 
tional brigandage — an  effort  to  tear  down 
all  that  civilization  stands  for  and  holds 
most  precious,  an  effort  to  plunge  man- 
kind back  into  the  despotism  and  darkness 
of  the  middle  ages. 

Hence  our  present  amazement  that  man- 
kind did  not  seize  upon  the  poignant  and 
spectacular  crime  of  the  Lusitania,  symp- 
tomatic of  the  whole  spirit  of  the  backward 
124 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

movement,  and  do  one  or  both  of  these 
things : 

Combine  its  armies  and  navies  for  our 
suppression  as  enemies  of  the  race ; 

Banish  us,  at  least  so  long  as  our  mad- 
ness should  rage,  from  the  family  of  na- 
tions, denounce  us  as  outlaw,  renegade,  out- 
cast. 

The    World's    Lack    of    a    Great    Moral 
Leader 

We  further  confess  our  belief  that  if 
mankind  had  thus  risen  and  declared  its 
ban  upon  us  our  sanity  would  the  sooner 
have  returned,  the  senseless  war  might  the 
sooner  have  come  to  its  end. 

If,  after  the  crime  of  the  Lusitania  and 
the  failure  of  our  government  to  meet  in 
good  faith  and  fair  response  his  just  de- 
mands the  official  head  of  the  greatest  of 
all  the  neutral  peoples  had  not  only  sev- 
ered all  friendly  relations  with  us,  but  in 
125 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

words  that  could  have  burnt  their  way  to 
our  very  souls  had  held  the  lamp  of  truth 
up  to  our  deeds  of  darkness,  at  the  same 
time  inviting  all  the  other  peoples  of 
earth  to  join  with  America  in  making  us 
outlaw,  we  believe  deep  in  our  hearts  that 
we  the  German  people,  shamed  and 
shocked,  after  the  first  hours  of  bitter  re- 
sentment had  passed  would  have  been 
roused  into  the  processes  of  self-search 
which  must  quickly  have  led  to  emancipa- 
tion of  our  reason  and  assertion  of  our 
determination  to  be  no  longer  criminal. 

For,  despite  all  that  we  have  done  or  per- 
mitted to  be  done  in  our  name,  despite  all 
the  crimes  laid  at  our  door,  we  the  people 
of  Germany  are  not  savages,  we  are  not 
cave-men,  we  do  not  wish  to  kill  our  neigh- 
bor or  rob  him  of  his  land  and  goods,  we 
are  not  bandits,  we  do  not  believe  in  the 
domination  of  Might  over  Right  or  of 
physical  over  moral  force,  we  abhor  the 
126 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

butchery  of  innocent  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren, we  are  warm-hearted,  generous, 
chivalrous,  we  are  as  just  and  peace-loving 
as  the  average  of  the  world's  peoples,  we 
wish  to  be  good  citizens  of  the  world  and 
crave  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  our 
fellow  men — but  we  had  been  tricked,  and 
we  were  mad ! 

To  rouse  us  from  our  madness  we  needed 
the  shock  of  a  rebuke  that  would  have  shiv- 
ered us  to  the  soul.  We  needed  an  appeal 
to  our  manhood  and  our  moral  sense 
through  pride  and  shame.  Disciplinary 
physical  force  was  not  required;  we  were 
already  facing  so  much  of  that  we  feared 
it  not,  and  if  more  had  been  added  might 
have  put  our  backs  to  the  wall  and  fought 
all  the  earth  as  long  as  breath  was  in  us. 

But  if  the  great  and  almost  divinely  pa- 
tient President  of  the  United  States,  with 
the  greatest  of  all  the  world's  peoples  be- 
hind him,  had  resolutely  seized  the  finest 
127 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

opportunity  in  all  history  to  confront  a 
world  offender  with  the  silent,  resistless, 
overwhelming  moral  force  of  an  aroused 
civilization — moral  force,  the  very  essence 
of  civilization,  more  potent  in  the  final  test 
than  all  the  armies  and  navies  of  embattled 
Europe,  more  effective  and  decisive  than 
a  score  of  defeats  in  the  field ; 

If  after  our  Kaiser  had  failed  when  fate 
brought  him  to  the  supreme  moment,  when 
he  was  implored  to  say  the  word  the  world 
was  hoping  for,  the  word  peace,  and  in- 
stead brought  on  the  crime  against  civili- 
zation ;  if  the  American  President  had  not 
likewise  failed  when  opportunity  knocked 
once  at  his  door  with  bid  to  place  his  name 
high  in  the  list  of  immortals  by  summon- 
ing forth  the  moral  might  of  the  world 
against  a  world  crime; 

If  we  had  been  thus  haled  to  the  judg- 
ment seat  and  there  confronted  with  the 
open,  glassy,  accusing  eyes  of  the  innocent 
128 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

victims  of  the  Lusitania  floating  out  on  the 
ocean  current,  grim  example  of  all  that  we 
had  been  made  to  stand  and  fight  for  and 
try  to  force  upon  an  unwilling  world,  Ger- 
man shame  would  quickly  have  shaken  the 
German  conscience,  roused  German  man- 
hood, cleared  German  eyes.  It  might  not 
have  been  necessary  to  wait  till  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  graves  of  brave  French, 
English  and  German  soldiers  dotted  the 
landscape  along  the  Meuse  and  the  Yser. 
Though  our  eyes  are  now  filled  with  tears 
of  remorse,  and  of  gratitude,  we  clearly  see 
that  neutral  mankind  withheld  from  us  his 
heavy,  punitive  hand,  spared  us  the  ban  of 
outlawry,  not  because  we  were  undeserv- 
ing of  both,  but  because  in  great  under- 
standing and  great  generosity  and  more 
than  human  patience  he  made  distinction 
between  us  the  German  people  and  the  Ger- 
man military-autocracy,  knew  that  we  were 
victims  not  authors  of  the  crime. 
129 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

Gratitude  for  this  distinction  and  that 
forbearance  does  not  take  away  from  us 
our  sense  of  responsibility.  All  that  was 
done  was  done  in  our  name,  with  our 
strength,  with  the  system  which  we  had 
permitted  to  survive  and  reign  among  us. 

This  responsibility  we,  the  German  peo- 
ple, aroused,  clear-eyed,  strong,  self-re- 
liant, free  moral  agents,  accept  and  meet. 

We  have  found  the  cause  of  our  ills,  and 
now,  as  men  grown,  modern,  master  of  our 
land  and  its  destinies,  we  resolutely  seek 
the  remedy. 

It  was  during  the  period  of  the  formal 
armistice  that  the  great  awakening  came 
in  Germany.  The  movement  embraced 
nearly  all  of  the  people.  Upon  an  ap- 
pointed day  German  men  and  women  gath- 
ered in  mass  meetings  in  all  the  cities, 
towns  and  villages  of  the  empire.  They  as- 
sembled by  the  millions,  calm,  determined, 
130 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

unafraid.  They  met  no  opposition  or  in- 
terference. The  meetings  adopted  resolu- 
tions declaring  the  oligarchical  govern- 
ment had  lost  the  confidence  of  the  country 
and  must  be  supplanted  by  a  government 
truly  representative  of  the  nation's  char- 
acter and  will,  at  home  and  abroad. 

By  order  of  the  General  Committee  elec- 
tions were  soon  held,  and  all  the  states  sent 
delegates  to  the  National  Congress  called 
to  meet  at  Berlin. 

After  a  few  days  of  deliberation  the  Na- 
tional Congress  adopted  the  report  of  a 
committee  appointed  to  prepare  an  ad- 
dress to  the  peoples  of  the  world,  a 
transcript  of  which  is  given  in  the  fore- 
going chapters. 

A  little  later  the  Congress  proclaimed  a 
new  government  and  organized  a  provis- 
ional ministry  which  at  once  took  posses- 
sion of  all  the  offices  and  bureaus,  and  com- 
mand of  the  army  and  navy,  and  then  pro- 
131 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

ceeded  to  negotiate  treaties  of  peace  with 
all  enemy  nations.  Meanwhile  the  armis- 
tice, arranged  in  the  first  place  because  the 
German  awakening  was  known  to  be  on  the 
way,  had  been  automatically  extended  by 
common  consent,  and  for  more  than  six 
months  peace  had  everywhere  prevailed. 


132 


CHAPTER   X 

FOUNDING   THE   GEKMAN   KEPUBLIO 

(Declaration  of  Self -Government  Unani- 
mously Adopted  hy  the  Delegates  from 
26  German  States  in  National  Congress 
Assembled  at  Berlin) 

Whenever  in  the  course  of  human  events 
it  becomes  necessary  for  a  people  to  dis- 
solve the  government  which  they  have  hith- 
erto maintained  and  to  set  up  another  bet- 
ter suited  to  their  aims,  principles  and  as- 
pirations, a  decent  respect  to  the  opinions 
of  mankind  requires  that  they  should  de- 
clare the  causes  which  impel  them  to  the 
change  and  give  pledge  of  their  future  con- 
duct as  a  member  of  the  family  of  nations. 
We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident: 
That  all  men  are  created  with  equal  right 
133 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

to  Life,  Liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  Happi- 
ness; 

That  to  secure  these  rights  governments 
are  instituted  among  men,  deriving  all 
their  powers  from  the  people  governed  and 
possessing  no  power  derived  from  ances- 
try, inheritance,  the  heavens  or  any  other 
source  whatsoever  than  the  will  of  the  peo- 
ple who  created  them; 

That  as  governments  are  instituted  and 
exist  solely  to  render  Service  to  the  people 
all  authority  vested  in  the  government 
must  be  used  exclusively  for  service,  for 
securing  the  right  to  life,  protecting 
liberty,  promoting  happiness,  and  not  for 
any  other  purpose  whatsoever ; 

That  all  civilization  is  based  upon  Moral 
Force  as  distinguished  from  physical 
force;  that  the  essence  of  civilization,  that 
which  marks  its  upward  progress  from 
primitive  society  bordering  on  savagery, 
is  the  superiority  of  moral  over  physical 
134 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

force,  the  utilization  of  all  natural  ele- 
ments, forces  and  materials  in  promoting 
the  comfort,  health,  strength  and  happiness 
of  mankind,  while  all  organization  of  so- 
ciety, individual  and  social  rules  of  con- 
duct, relation  of  neighbor  with  neighbor, 
community  with  community,  state  with 
state,  nation  with  nation,  all  laws  of  or- 
ganized society  and  all  governments  and 
institutions  for  enforcing  those  laws  are 
founded  upon  Moral  Force  alone ; 

That  no  government  has  the  right  to  or- 
ganize physical  force  in  the  form  of  bodies 
of  armed  men  or  armed  vessels  and  with  it 
exert  tyranny  over  the  people,  or  the  peo- 
ple 's  rights  to  self-government  and  to  free- 
dom of  opinion,  discussion  and  agitation 
without  which  self-government  is  impos- 
sible, or  for  the  purpose  of  exercising  re- 
straint upon  neighboring  nations  through 
use  or  the  fear  of  the  use  of  physical  vio- 
lence upon  them ; 

135 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

That  German  civilization  has  been  long 
founded  upon  these  rights  of  the  people 
and  these  moral  forces  which  alone  control 
domestic  affairs  and  must  henceforth  con- 
trol all  foreign  relations  or  dealings  of  the 
government  with  neighbors,  physical  forces 
being  mere  servitors,  hand-maidens,  or  in- 
struments of  moral  purposes  and  polities. 

We  repudiate  and  abandon  the  tradition 
that  modern,  civilized  government  can  be 
successfully  and  permanently  based  upon 
high  authority  coming  into  being  through 
some  other  agency  or  process  than  the  will 
of  the  people,  possessing  attributes  of  ab- 
solutism or  divinity,  and  because  of  this 
fictitious  superiority  being  not  of  the  peo- 
ple but  a  thing  apart  and  above,  not  open 
to  question  of  its  infallibility  or  criticism 
of  its  acts,  basing  its  practical  power  upon 
this  fiction  and  wielding  it  with  the  weap- 
ons of  physical  force,  thus  setting  physical 
force,  directed  by  a  power  coming  from 
136 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

without,  above  and  dominant  over  moral 
force  coming  from  within  the  culture  of  the 
people. 

We  repudiate  and  abandon  the  tradi- 
tion that  neighboring  nations  are  simply- 
other  highly  developed  tribes  controlled 
by  other  chiefs,  alike  dominated  by  absolu- 
tism and  physical  force,  and  because  for- 
eigners, not  of  us,  probably  or  necessarily 
enemies,  peace  or  war  exists  between  us 
as  our  chiefs  may  direct  through  the  chang- 
ing inter-play  of  their  selfishness,  whims, 
jealousies,  quarrels  or  ambitions. 

We  recognize  the  fact  that  whilst  such 
traditions  remain  and  have  power  in  the 
regulation  of  the  conduct  of  nations,  how- 
ever polished  or  softened  or  disguised  com- 
pared with  their  savage  ante-types,  the 
lives,  liberty  and  happiness  of  a  people  are 
not  secure  within  the  guardianship  of  their 
own  moral  force,  and  civilization  is  far 
from  reaching  its  ultimate  ideal,  the  com- 
137 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

plete  domination   of  morality,  justice  in 
all  human  affairs. 

Toward  this  ideal  we  German  people 
have  striven,  as  other  peoples  have  striven. 
We  believe  our  intrinsic  progress  as  a  peo- 
ple has  been  as  great  as  that  of  other  peo- 
ples. Responsibility  for  survival  to  this 
day  of  middle-ages  tradition,  inconsistent 
with  and  harmful  to  modern  social  organi- 
zation, rests  not  upon  us  alone.  We  de- 
clare it  the  duty  of  every  modern  people 
to  examine  critically  their  own  organiza- 
tion, take  immediate  steps  to  cast  out  all 
baneful  survival,  and  to  help  not  hinder 
their  neighbors  in  like  reformation.  This 
we  Germans  are  now  doing. 

The  System  That  Made  the  Crime  Pos- 
sible 

We  recognize  the  fact  that  civilization 
has  made  its  greatest  mpral  progress,  its 
nearest  approach  to  the  ideal,  in  central 
138 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

and  western  Europe  and  in  the  American 
continent;  that  a  small  group  of  nations 
of  the  first  rank  in  population,  resources, 
wealth,  power,  are  virtually  the  leaders  and 
moulders  of  modem  civilization ;  according 
as  they  go  slowly  or  rapidly  forward  civi- 
lization in  general  moves  slowly  or  rapidly ; 
if  they  take  a  backward  step  all  civilization 
reverts  or  its  progress  is  retarded.  Upon 
these  four  or  five  great  and  advanced  peo- 
ples rests  responsibility  for  making  civili- 
zation what  it  is. 

All  of  these  world  leaders  have  been 
lately  at  war,  the  American  republic  alone 
excepted.  Those  who  should  have  led  the 
march  forward  have  reverted  toward  bar- 
barism and  carried  much  of  the  world  back- 
ward with  them.  They  have  involved  man- 
kind in  an  agony  of  destruction  and  suffer- 
ing, much  of  the  progress  of  a  century  ap- 
pears to  have  been  lost  at  a  single  stroke. 

It  is  the  judgment  of  neutral  mankind, 
139 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

and  will  doubtless  be  the  judgment  of  His- 
tory, that  this  war  broke  upon  the  world  in 
the  complete  absence  of  high  or  critical 
issue  between  the  belligerents,  no  dispute 
between  them  of  more  than  passing,  small 
import  to  any,  no  quarrel  involving  vital 
principle  or  rights  or  even  property  or  ad- 
vantage of  real  importance  even  when 
viewed  with  the  narrowest  selfishness, 
nothing  at  stake  worth  the  sacrifice  of 
even  one  human  life. 

It  is  the  judgment  of  neutral  mankind, 
and  will  doubtless  be  the  judgment  of  His- 
tory, that  the  war  came  because  one  or 
other  or  some  group  of  the  four  or  five 
nations  of  the  first  rank,  virtual  guardians 
of  civilization,  suffered  an  excess  of  tribal- 
ism and  through  blunder  or  crime  of  chief- 
tainship reverted  to  the  ways  of  savagery 
and  made  war  for  purpose  of  robbery  and 
subjugation. 

It  is  the  further  judgment  of  neutral 
140 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

mankind,  and  will  doubtless  be  the  judg- 
ment of  History,  that  once  this  reversion 
had  taken  place,  the  war  once  started,  an 
issue  of  supreme  importance  was  created. 
Begun  over  nothing,  it  now  was  a  struggle 
for  everything  worth  while — whether  civi- 
lization was  to  go  back  toward  barbarism 
with  tribal  chieftainship  and  physical  force 
dominant  in  the  organization  of  society  and 
government,  or  whether  it  was  to  go  for- 
ward toward  the  ultimate  ideal  of  man- 
kind ruling  itself  through  its  developed 
moral  forces  scientifically  organized. 

It  was  inevitable  from  the  first,  written 
in  the  book  of  fate,  that  the  outcome,  how- 
ever reached,  however  long  and  bloody  was 
the  road  to  it,  must  be  the  triumph  of 
moral  force.  Any  other  verdict  would  have 
meant  the  collapse  of  civilization. 

Fixing  of  responsibility  for  this  rever- 
sion is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  all 
mankind,  because  it  is  only  in  this  way  we 
141 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

can  know  where  the  weakness  of  the  former 
organization  was,  where  the  remedy  must 
be  applied  and  how,  that  the  verdict  may 
be  made  complete  and  permanent,  that 
the  world  may  not  some  day  have  to  fight 
the  ruinous  fight  all  over  again.  Hence  we 
German  people  are  directly  and  earnestly 
concerned  with  the  great  question  of  re- 
sponsibility, hence  our  present  action. 

Responsibility  a  Vital  Question 

We  are  well  aware  it  is  the  judgment  of 
neutral  mankind,  and  will  doubtless  be  the 
judgment  of  History,  that  the  German  na- 
tion is  chiefly  responsible,  that  the  rever- 
sion toward  barbarism  which  engulfed  in 
the  struggle  all  but  one  of  the  four  or  five 
great  nations,  and  many  other  nations, 
came  from  us.  This  judgment  we  the  peo- 
ple of  Germany,  now  that  our  eyes  are  self- 
opened,  are  forced  to  accept.  We  deem  it 
the  highest  human  quality  to  seek  truth, 
142 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

find  it,  face  it  even  when  it  hurts  self,  man- 
fully admit  fault,  seek  remedy,  reparation, 
regeneration.  It  being  human  to  err,  this 
candid  self-correction  is  of  the  essence  of 
the  process  of  moral  progress,  there  can 
be  no  real  moral  progress,  individual  or 
national,  without  it. 

Responsibility  for  the  war  we  the  Ger- 
man people  accept,  with  important  quali- 
fications : 

First,  that  we  Germans  are  not  more  to 
be  blamed  than  the  other  great  nations 
of  central  and  western  Europe  for  per- 
mitting survival  of  the  spirit  of  tribalism, 
armed  nationalism  upon  land  and  sea, 
physical  force  frowning  and  threatening 
behind  all  moral  force  in  the  relations  of 
the  nations; 

Second,  that  a  European  power  not  of 
the  advanced  and  most  highly  developed 
peoples  but  vast  in  area,  population,  po- 
tential strength,  maintained  much  more 
143 


^HE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

than  any  of  the  group  of  central  and  west- 
ern powers  the  tradition  of  tribe  and  abso- 
lutism, with  great  military  prowess  and 
autocratic  authority  to  use  it  in  attack 
upon  others  without  the  need  of  giving 
valid  reason  therefor  to  its  myriad  of  vas- 
sal subjects; 

Third,  that  one  of  the  highly  developed 
nations,  which  had  made  signal  progress 
in  all  other  ways  toward  civilization's 
ideal,  effected  open  alliance  with  this  giant 
of  absolutism  with  the  avowed  purpose  of 
finding  checkmate  to  Germany,  one  of  the 
partners  in  this  alliance  being  our  neigh- 
bor on  the  west  and  the  other  our  neigh- 
bor on  the  east,  extensive  frontiers  be- 
tween our  lands ; 

Fourth,  that  soon  afterward  a  third 
member  of  the  advanced  group,  a  power 
which  more  than  any  other  had  maintained 
armed  nationalism  upon  the  high  seas  with 
the  avowed  and  achieved  purpose  of  mas- 
144 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

tery  there,  in  spirit  and  effect  if  not  in 
formal  compact  leagued  itself  with  this  al- 
liance of  our  eastern  and  western  neigh- 
bors, also  with  the  undisguised  aim  of  find- 
ing checkmate  to  Germany. 

These  facts  show  how  those  great  na- 
tions who  stood  jointly  responsible  with 
Germany  for  maintenance  of  the  forward 
march  of  civilization  not  only  preserved 
the  tribal  tradition  of  physical  force,  with 
hostility  to  or  fear  of  us  as  prime  motive, 
but  in  hostility  to  or  fear  of  us  made  open 
alliance  with  a  power  more  mediaeval  than 
any  of  us. 

These  facts  show  how  divided  was  re- 
sponsibility for  survival  of  the  system,  how 
natural  and  inevitable  was  the  conviction 
which  spread  in  Germany  that  we  were 
surrounded  by  a  coalition  of  armed  and 
powerful  nations  which  some  day  soon  or 
late  we  must  contend  against  for  our  right 
to  exist. 

145 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

But  having  stated  these  qualifications 
of  our  responsibility,  in  our  striving  for 
the  whole  truth  we  reach  and  declare  this 
as  our  belief ; 

Morally  advanced,  democratic  England 
and  France  leagued  themselves  with  ill-de- 
veloped, autocratic  Russia  because  they 
feared  Germany; 

Their  league  inevitably  convinced  Ger- 
man authority,  and  to  a  large  extent  the 
German  people,  that  we  were  surrounded 
by  enemies; 

But  we  see  now  what  we  could  not  see 
before,  that  the  purpose  of  England  and 
France  was  not  to  attack  Germany,  but 
to  prevent  Germany  attacking  them  by 
massing  so  much  strength  as  to  make  Ger- 
man attack  suicidal  and  therefore  impos- 
sible ; 

The  aim  of  England  and  France  was  not 
to  break  the  peace  of  the  world  but  to  keep 
it.  They  would  not  themselves  start  war, 
146 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

Russia  as  their  ally  would  not  dare  attack 
alone,  they  could  restrain  her,  Germany 
would  never  rush  against  odds  so  heavy — 
peace  was  therefore  assured  in  the  check- 
mate of  combined  strength  on  land  and 
sea. 

Such  was  the  situation;  such  was  the 
bulwark  built  to  restrain  the  flood;  it  in- 
deed seemed  impregnable ;  confidence  in  the 
permanence  of  the  armed  peace  was  jus- 
tifiable. 

Then  the  war  came — came  to  the  con- 
sternation of  the  coalition,  to  the  amaze- 
ment of  the  onlooking  world,  to  the  sur- 
prise of  the  German  people. 

Where  was  the  fatal  weak  spot  in  the  ap- 
parently unbreakable  barrier?  What  gave 
way  and  let  the  torrent  of  barbarism  sweep 
down  upon  all  the  lands !  Who  or  what  is 
responsible  for  the  catastrophe? 


147 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

The  FatefuUy  Weak  Spot  in  the  Barrier 

We  have  sought  that  weak  spot  and 
found  it: 

The  true  genius  of  our  people  lay  in  the 
realm  of  peace,  not  war.  Our  civilization 
had  taken  on  high  development,  we  had  be- 
come a  workshop  for  much  of  the  world, 
our  industrial  empire  lay  out  over  the  seas, 
the  prosperity  of  all  other  peoples  meant 
our  prosperity,  our  highest  interests  de- 
manded only  good  relations  with  all  man- 
kind. 

We  had  a  government  highly  efficient  at 
home,  expressive  there  of  the  national 
character  and  will,  setting  a  model  which 
much  of  the  world  was  glad  to  follow  in 
municipal,  community,  common-social  Ser- 
vice. With  that  government  we  were  con- 
tent. Its  minor  imperfections  we  should 
remedy  in  our  own  time  and  way.  Des- 
pite the  tribal  traditions  it  cherished,  its 
148 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

mediaeval  outward  form,  its  proud  pre- 
tensions, some  of  the  limitations  it  im- 
posed upon  individualism  and  free  citizen- 
ship, we  had  no  fear  that  it  contained  an 
element  of  national  danger. 

But  we  see  now  what  for  years  our  eyes 
could  not  see,  that  side  by  side  with  this 
shining  exemplar  of  self-government  for 
Service  we  were  unsuspiciously  maintain- 
ing the  wholly  inconsistent  tribal  tradition 
that  the  people  exist  only  to  serve  the  gov- 
ernment whenever  the  government  elects  to 
summon  them;  and  this  government  not  a 
creation  of  the  people,  evolved  from  their 
moral  development,  expressive  of  their 
character,  responsible  to  their  will,  but  a 
thing  apart,  superior,  without  the  sense  of 
direct  responsibility,  with  a  strong  will  of 
its  own  different  in  tendency  and  morality 
from  the  will  of  the  people,  adjusted  to  a 
different  standard,  moving  in  a  different 
environment,  affected  by  different  tradi- 
149 


THF  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

tions,  at  any  moment  likely  to  have  differ- 
ent motive. 

We  now  see  that  our  government  was 
badly,  inefficiently,  inconsistently  organ- 
ized. It  was  strong  at  home  because 
evolved  from  the  people,  through  the  proc- 
esses of  selection  and  perfection. 

It  was  weak  and  dangerous  abroad  be- 
cause all  our  foreign  relations  were  left  in 
the  supreme  control  of  this  higher  and  dif- 
ferent authority.  Of  the  actual  state  and 
significance  of  our  political  relations  with 
our  neighbors  we  the  people  knew  little, 
only  what  the  all-powerful  higher  agency 
permitted  us  to  know,  passed  out  to  us  with 
its  own  coloring  or  interpretation.  Intel- 
ligent, forceful,  effective  public  opinion  in 
foreign  affairs  was  an  impossibility.  We 
were  psychologically  and  morally  as  well  as 
physically  and  materially  in  the  hollow  of 
the  hands  of  the  mediaeval  part  of  our 
national  organization. 
150 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

We  see  now  that  whilst  we  the  people 
were  laboriously  building  a  great  nation, 
among  the  foremost  of  the  world's  family, 
we  negligently  left  in  the  hands  of  a  caste, 
a  small  minority  amongst  us,  the  power  to 
ruin  all  we  had  built. 

Looking  inward  we  were  a  highly  devel- 
oped, self-governing  nation;  looking  out- 
ward we  were  a  chief-ruled  tribe  of  humble, 
ignorant  vassals. 

The  world-crisis,  the  pressure  of  events, 
came  from  without,  caught  Germany  where 
German  organization  was  weakest,  most 
vulnerable,  most  dangerous,  least  expres- 
sive of  the  character  and  will  of  the  na- 
tion, where  the  people,  uninformed,  child- 
like, were  easily  led  to  a  spiritual  stam- 
pede, easily  made  victims,  dupes. 

Here  was  the  weak  point  in  the  barrier 
against  barbarism,  here  came  the  break 
that  let  in  the  deluge. 

We  now  see  clearly  why  Europe  was  an 
151 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

armed  camp,  why  the  coalition  of  advanced 
powers  with  a  backward  power  was  made, 
why  the  league  was  formed  against  Ger- 
many which  led  to  the  ghastly  misunder- 
standing and  blindness  of  our  people  and 
through  that  to  the  greatest  earthly  trag- 
edy. 

All  Peoples  for  Peace— Yet  War  Came 

In  Europe  there  were  three  highly  devel- 
oped nations  jointly  responsible  for  the 
peace  and  progress  of  the  world. 

In  all  three  the  peoples  wanted  peace, 
had  no  wish  for  conflict  with  their  neigh- 
bors. 

In  two  of  these  nations  the  people  re- 
tained government  in  their  own  hands,  self- 
government,  government  of  public  opinion 
and  public  morality,  government  directly 
responsible  to  public  opinion,  existing  and 
wielding  power  only  so  long  as  it  expressed 
in  policy  and  performance  the  will  of  its 
152 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

creators,  sure  to  be  thrown  out  of  office 
the  moment  it  moved  contrary  to  that  will 
or  in  harm  to  the  highest  interests  of  the 
nation  as  judged  by  the  people  of  the  na- 
tion. 

In  these  two  nations  the  people  who 
wanted  peace  were  able  to  have  peace  be- 
cause they  retained  in  their  own  hands 
through  such  responsible  and  responsive 
government  control  of  all  relations  with 
neighbors,  control  of  all  that  might  lead 
to  war,  control  of  the  war-making  power 
itself. 

But  in  the  third  of  these  sponsors  for  the 
world  ^s  peace  and  progress  the  people, 
though  wanting  peace  as  much  as  the  oth- 
ers, were  without  ability  to  have  peace  be- 
cause they  put  out  of  their  hands  control 
of  outer  relations,  placed  supreme  power 
in  the  hands  of  a  higher  and  irresponsible 
agency,  were  without  public  opinion  upon 
those  relations  or  even  adequate  informa- 
153 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

tion  upon  which  to  base  opinion,  public 
morality  virtually  abdicated  as  to  all  inter- 
national contact,  and  public  feeling,  trained 
to  discipline  and  obedience,  was  itself  a 
toy  for  the  higher  agency  to  manipulate 
and  play  with  as  it  chose. 

In  the  third  of  these  sponsors  for  the 
world's  peace  and  progress  the  people 
through  racial  traits  and  tendencies  had 
made  themselves  very  many,  had  become 
great  in  energy  and  efficiency,  powerful  in 
wealth,  resources,  men.  Though  wanting 
peace  for  self-defense  they  had  created  the 
greatest,  most  highly  organized,  most  for- 
midable army  in  the  world.  Mastery  of 
this  army  like  mastery  of  all  dealings  with 
other  nations  which  might  result  in  calling 
the  mighty  army  to  action,  they  turned 
over  to  the  supreme  agency.  They  turned 
themselves  over,  too,  their  opinions,  their 
morality,  all  they  possessed.  They  placed 
the  power  of  life  or  death  over  themselves 
154 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

and  their  land  in  an  authority  which 
was  higher  than  themselves  though  not 
quite  as  high  as  God,  somewhere  between 
earth  and  sky,  morally  responsible  to 
neither. 

When  the  peoples  of  the  two  nations 
saw  all  these  things  in  the  third,  discussed, 
analyzed,  understood  them,  they  were 
afraid. 

They  saw  all  this  military  prowess,  all 
this  practical  potentiality  of  the  popula- 
tion, all  this  blind  obedience  and  subserv- 
ient devotion  of  the  people,  massed  under 
the  absolute  domination  of  an  authority, 
a  caste,  unmodern,  mediaeval,  militant, 
menacing,  openly  avowing  the  superiority 
of  physical  over  moral  force,  gladly  show- 
ing always  to  the  outer  world  ill-concealed 
portent  of  will  to  translate  that  superiority 
into  action. 

We  see  now  why  for  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury the  predominant  factor  in  the  politi- 
155 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

cal  life  of  Europe  had  been  fear  that  Ger- 
many would  break  the  world's  peace. 

The  World's  Fear  of  Germany 

Germany  was  feared  not  because  of  the 
inner,  actual  essence  of  German  culture, 
not  because  the  German  people  of  them- 
selves were  internationally  immoral  and 
in  danger  of  committing  international 
crime,  but  because  Germany  was  so  strong, 
so  efficient,  so  valorous,  so  prepared,  so 
organized,  so  indomitable,  for  defense,  plus 
because  she  had  placed  all  this  in  the  power 
of  a  system  which  had  to  be  feared  because 
it  ever  presented,  through  its  inherent 
tendencies,  the  menace  of  changing  defense 
to  attack. 

We  Germans  did  not  fear  because  we 
were  blind,  because  in  the  midst  of  rapid 
acquirement  of  wealth  and  influence  and 
comfort  and  luxury  we  thought  a  system 
which  made  all  this  possible  must  be 
156 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

strong  and  safe,  because  we  knew  we 
wanted  only  peace  and  could  not  bring 
ourselves  even  to  the  verge  of  fear  that 
leaders  enjoying  our  childlike  trust  could 
take  such  desperate  hazard  against  such 
heavy  odds  and  wantonly,  heedlessly  risk 
the  fruits  of  generations  of  German  prog- 
ress, play  a  million  German  lives  in  one 
w'ild  cast  for  a  bauble. 

We  Germans  now  remember  it  was  not 
England  or  France  we  feared  in  those  long 
years  of  the  armed  peace ;  we  did  not  fear 
attack  from  them  because  we  knew  intui- 
tively that  a  self-governing  people  would 
not  provoke  an  avoidable  war.  It  was 
Russia  we  feared,  with  all  her  lack  of  mod- 
ern efficiency,  and  her  we  feared  because 
we  knew  her  rule  was  that  of  feudal  ab- 
solutism. We  do  not  forget  that  in  the  ex- 
planation of  the  war  which  our  leaders 
first  gave  us  it  was  Russia  that  bore  down 
upon  us  in  lust  of  conquest,  France  was 
157 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

only  her  unwilling  tool,  England  would  not 
fight. 

We  are  forced  to  reflect  that  if  one  au- 
tocracy feared  another  and  did  not  fear 
democracy — if  a  highly  efficient  autocracy 
feared  a  poorly  organized  and  inefficient 
autocracy  simply  because  it  was  autocracy, 
not  only  must  autocracy  and  militarism  to- 
gether be  the  arch  enemy  of  peace  and 
civilization — 

But  how  much  more  natural  that  democ- 
racies, wishing  peace,  should  fear  a  highly 
organized,  compact,  efficient  autocracy  like 
ours,  tremendous  national  energy  and  com- 
plete national  unity  behind  it,  all  under  the 
high  hand  which  had  systematically  rat- 
tled its  sabre  in  the  face  of  Europe,  all  un- 
der an  oligarchy  which  had  taught  its  obe- 
dient vassals  that  ''war  is  a  moral  obliga- 
tion, and,  as  such,  an  indispensable  factor 
in  civilization, ' '  that  the  German  system  is 
superior  to  all  other  systems  and  it  is 
158 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

a  moral  duty  to  spread  it  among  other  peo- 
ples with  the  sword. 

Placing  the  Guilt 

And  it  came  to  pass  in  this  the  twentieth 
century,  in  an  age  of  culture  and  the  sway 
of  moral  force,  in  a  developed  world  so- 
ciety where  all  mankind  mingles  with  all 
others  and  in  all  his  contact,  except  through 
organized  nationalism,  demands  and  gives 
respect  for  life  and  property,  in  an  era 
when  distances  are  as  nothing,  oceans  but 
narrow  common  highways,  frontiers  more 
theoretical  than  real,  nations  but  conven- 
ient groups  of  humanity,  tribes  and  chiefs, 
bludgeons  and  spears  presumably  known 
only  to  history  and  archaeology — 

All  Europe  armed  through  fear  the  tribe 
of  Teutons  may  attack; 

All  Germans  armed  for  defense  if  Eu- 
rope attacks  them; 

And  then  the  Deluge  of  blood! 
159 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

Our  devotion  to  our  race  and  our  land 
is  great,  but  greater  still  is  our  love  for 
truth. 

It  is  our  sad  duty  to  place  the  guilt,  and 
we  do  it  not  for  reproach,  nor  recrimina- 
tion, but  to  find  the  remedy,  to  seek  regen- 
eration. 

Guilt  falls  upon  him  who  broke  the  peace, 
who  made  the  assault. 

Neighbors,  long  friendly,  for  some  un- 
accountable reason  grow  mutually  suspi- 
cious, each  arms  himself  for  defense  in  fear 
of  the  other,  fear  of  attack,  robbery,  mur- 
der. Neither  actually  intends  attack,  each 
is  sincere  in  preparing  only  for  defense. 
If  then  in  some  fit  of  madness,  some  access 
of  passion,  one  does  take  his  weapon  and 
go  forth  killing,  burning,  robbing,  he  is 
the  criminal,  the  violator  of  law. 

He  may  not  plead  in  justification  his  fear 
that  his  neighbor  might  attack  him,  for  if 
both  had  waited  till  his  neighbor  turned 
160 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

criminal  there  would  have  been  no  crime. 

If  none  of  the  European  powers  had 
abandoned  the  status  of  defense — which  in 
the  nature  of  things  none  could  abandon 
without  timely  warning  reaching  the  oth- 
ers— there  would  have  been  no  war.  All 
wanted  peace,  security  for  all  lay  in  the 
status  quo,  the  crime  was  his  who  broke 
it  down. 

The  war  became  because  it  was  willed, 
because  there  was  somewhere  plot  to  profit 
at  neighbor's  cost,  because  somewhere  high 
authority  ceased  to  be  protective  of  the 
vast  interests  entrusted  to  it  and  chose  to 
turn  predatory. 

Responsibility  for  this  crime  against 
civilization  falls  first  upon  those  who 
broke  the  peace,  it  falls  next  upon  those 
who  through  blindness  or  negligence  main- 
tained a  government  in  which  such  homi- 
cidal highwaymanry  was  possible,  it  falls 
last  upon  all  the  peoples  who  maintained 
161 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

the  tribal  system  of  armed  peace  with  the 
inevitable  danger  that  some  time  or  other 
at  one  or  another  place  the  barrier  would 
break  and  the  catastrophe  be  precipitated. 

The  Tribe  That  Was  a  Nation  Must  Be 

We  see  now  that  Germany  is  responsible 
at  the  judgment  seat  of  Civilization  and 
History  because  Germany  alone  of  all  the 
nations  maintained  in  one  mighty  combina- 
tion: 

Irresponsible  autocracy ; 

Government  by  caste  with  war  its  toy 
and  weapon,  superiority  of  physical  force 
its  philosophy  and  preachment; 

Formidable  military  prowess — ''the 
army  the  nation,  the  nation  the  army ; ' ' 

Vast  industrial  potentiality; 

A  people  great  in  numbers,  proficiency, 
energy; 

Marvelous  patriotic  unity  among  them; 

This  unity  finding  expression  not  in  in- 
162 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

telligent  public  opinion  controlling  the 
caste  but  in  servilely  permitting  the  caste 
to  make  public  opinion  to  order,  make  war 
at  will. 

Other  nations  contained  some  of  these 
menaces,  Germany  alone  had  them  all. 

All  were  required  in  combination  to  con- 
stitute menace  of  the  first  world  magni- 
tude, Germany  alone  had  the  complete  com- 
bination. 

We  see  now  how  civilization  was  inexor- 
ably forced  to  take  its  stand  that  this 
mighty  menace  could  be  permitted  to  ex- 
ist— 

Only  in  the  midst  of  an  armed  defensive 
check-mate ; 

Only  as  long  as  it  raised  not  its  hand 
to  strike. 

There  was  the  fatal  crime  of  our  caste 
leadership,  there  the  blunder  worse  than 
crime. 

It  raised  its  hand  to  strike. 
163 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

Once  it  had  struck  the  blow,  it  was  then 
written  in  letters  of  fire  that  it  must  itself 
perish. 

It  and  modern  civilization  could  exist 
only  in  armed  truce ;  now  that  it  had  broken 
the  truce,  now  that  conflict  had  come,  one 
or  the  other  must  go  down. 

While  it  is  true  that  the  armed  strength 
of  civilization  was  not  great  enough  to  de- 
stroy it — the  valor  of  the  German  people 
has  seen  to  that — it  must  and  shall  be  de- 
stroyed nevertheless.  The  German  people 
will  attend  to  that  also. 

We  see  now  that  a  modern  people  must 
be  masters  of  their  own  destinies;  must 
have  government  by  public  opinion  and 
public  moral  force  abroad  as  well  as  at 
home;  the  public  opinion  of  a  grown  peo- 
ple must  be  always  well  informed,  free, 
self-acting,  not  made  to  order  like  the  im- 
pressions of  children;  public  opinion  must 
be  fed  with  truth,  not  with  the  husks  from 
164 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

which  high  authority  has  carefully  ex- 
tracted the  kernel ;  the  international  moral- 
ity of  a  great  people  must  not  be  at  the 
mercy  of  a  caste  or  minority  with  stand- 
ards lower  than  those  of  the  people,  am- 
bitions likely  to  run  counter  to  the  people's 
interests ;  we  no  longer  live  in  feudal  days 
where  the  industrious  millions  from  be- 
yond the  moat  may  with  safety  place  the 
power  of  life  and  death  over  them  and 
their  children  in  the  hands  of  the  warlike 
few  of  the  castle. 

The  authority  in  a  nation  to  fix  the  in- 
ternational morality  of  a  nation  must  be 
in  the  hands  of  those  who  made  the  na- 
tion. 

The  power  to  make  war  must  be  wholly 
in  the  hands  of  those  who  are  to  bear  the 
heat  and  burden  of  the  war. 

The  power  to  put  a  nation  in  peril  of 
its  life  or  its  good  repute  must  be  wholly 
in  the  hands  of  those  who  are  the  nation. 
165 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

Our  government  of  caste  failed  us.  It 
betrayed  and  deceived  the  country.  We 
German  people  had  built  up  an  empire  of 
culture,  good  name,  prosperity;  our  mili- 
tary oligarchy  struck  it  down. 

If  Germany  is  to  rise  again,  regain  her 
rightful  place  in  the  world,  resume  the  true 
work  of  the  genius  of  her  people  among 
human-kind,  she  must  have  a  government 
representative  at  all  points  of  German 
character,  intelligence  and  will. 

Germany  cannot  exist  half  culture,  half 
savage — half  nation,  half  tribe. 

Germany  cannot  hold  her  rightful  place 
in  civilization  and  at  the  same  time  main- 
tain a  system  inimical  and  menacing  to  civ- 
ilization ^s  peace  and  security — must  go 
with  the  stream  of  human  progress,  not 
try  to  dam  it  up  with  the  artificial  barrier 
of  brute  strength. 

The  German  people,  never  hitherto  be- 
lieving their  organization  contained  such 
166 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

menace,  but  now  learning  through  bitter- 
ness the  truth,  would  be  unworthy  to  enjoy 
the  blessings  of  modern  civilization  did 
they  not  arise  and  assert  their  manhood, 
awake  and  declare  themselves  their  own 
masters. 

Therefore — 

"We,  Delegates  fkom  the  Twenty-six 
States  of  Geemany,  in  National  Con- 
GEESS  Assembled  at  Beelin,  Do  Heeeby 
Declaee  that  the  Existing  Goveen- 
MENT,  Having  Lost  the  Confidence  of 
THE  People,  Shall  No  Longee  Exist, 
AND  Is  Heeeby  Deposed. 

In  Its  Place  We  Do  Heeeby  Oedain  that 

FEOM    AND    AFTEE   THIS    DaY    THE    GoVEEN- 

MENT  OF  Geemany  Shall  be  Republican 
IN  FoEM,  With  a  Constitution  Adopted 
BY  THE  People,  an  Elected  Chief  Ex- 
ecutive, AND  A  RePEESENTATIVE  PARLIA- 
MENT Chosen  by  Full  Manhood  and 
Womanhood  Suffeage  to  Which  the 
Peesident  and  His  ■  Ministees  Shall 
Evee  Be  Dieectly  Responsible. 


167 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE   GEEAT,    GENTLE   KEVOLUTION 

The  German  Revolution,  like  the  Ger- 
man spiritual  awakening  which  preceded  it, 
came  gently,  softly. 

Not  a  drop  of  blood  was  shed,  not  a  blow 
struck,  no  man  was  imprisoned,  no  punish- 
ment was  inflicted  on  any  one. 

During  the  whole  period  of  the  awaken- 
ing, the  agitation,  the  self-assertion,  no  ar- 
rests were  made.  The  police  and  military 
authorities  were  alike  discreet,  making  no 
effort  to  interfere  with  the  assemblages  of 
the  people. 

The  movement  was  irresistible,  over- 
whelming, in  its  massed  intelligence,  char- 
acter, resoluteness.  Nothing  could  have 
stood  before  it,  nothing  tried  to  stand  be- 
fore it. 

168 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

Softly  as  the  succession  of  bright  day 
after  a  long,  dark  night  came  the  Revolu- 
tion. The  whole  fabric  of  autocracy,  di- 
vinely given  power,  military  dominance, 
the  rule  of  tradition,  caste,  clique,  oli- 
garchy, the  sway  of  physical  force  and  hid- 
den intrigue,  disappeared  forever.  All  the 
artificial  forms,  all  the  relics  of  feudal  days, 
all  the  pomp  and  trappings  of  regal  power 
and  military  display,  everything  that  was 
inconsistent  with  high-cultured  modernism, 
faded  quietly  from  view. 

The  Provisional  Government,  established 
by  the  Congress,  treated  the  Kaiser  and 
all  his  family  and  entourage  with  the  great- 
est respect  and  consideration.  Public 
opinion  would  not  have  had  it  otherwise. 
There  was  general  recognition  of  the  fact 
that  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  Emperor 
had  stood  steadfast  for  peace,  blocking  in- 
numerable intrigues  for  war,  and  that  he 
had  at  last  succumbed  only  when  the  oli- 
169 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

garchy  spun  about  him  a  net  from  which  it 
was  difficult  for  him  to  find  his  way.  In 
many  publicly  adopted  resolutions  and  ad- 
dresses the  people  expressed  their  appre- 
ciation of  the  character  of  the  Kaiser,  their 
gratitude  for  his  signal  services  in  aid  of 
development  of  the  industries  and  com- 
merce of  the  empire  throughout  his  long 
reign. 

By  order  of  the  Provisional  Government 
the  Kaiser  was  appointed  Prince  of  Heligo- 
land, with  nominal  powers,  and  when  he 
and  his  family  and  suite,  including  the 
Crown  Prince,  were  about  to  depart  by 
special  train  for  their  future  home  on  the 
rocky  islet  off  the  Frisian  coast,  half  of 
Berlin  gathered  in  the  streets  and  at  the 
railway  station  to  bid  him  farewell. 

The  German  Emperor,  but  a  short  time 

before  the  most  powerful  monarch  in  the 

world,  commander   of  millions  of  armed 

men,  but  now  virtually  a  ward  of  his  coun- 

170 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

try,  was  touched  by  these  demonstrations 
of  the  good  will  and  magnanimity  of  the 
people,  and  left  Berlin  with  tears  in  his 
eyes. 

No  effort  was  made  by  the  new  govern- 
ment to  punish  the  men  who  had  plotted  the 
war,  deceived  the  German  Emperor  and 
the  German  people  in  furtherance  of  their 
unworthy  ambitions.  Many  of  these  men 
were  known,  much  evidence  in  detail  con- 
cerning the  deception  which  they  had  prac- 
tised became  available,  and  if  it  had  been 
desired  they  could  have  been  brought  to 
trial.  But  the  aroused,  clear-eyed  men  of 
Germany  saw  that  these  offenders  had  been 
but  part  of  the  unfortunate  system  which 
they  themselves  had  permitted  to  exist, 
gave  them  benefit  of  doubt  and  assumed 
their  fault  was  more  blunder  than  crime, 
permitted  them  to  disappear  from  public 
view  unnamed,  untouched,  unpunished. 

In  this  way  of  dignity,  generosity,  for- 
171 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

bearance,  the  German  people  effected  one 
of  the  most  momentous  revolutions  known 
to  the  pages  of  history.  In  a  land  where 
physical  force  had  so  long  reigned  supreme 
it  seemed  little  could  be  done  without  its 
aid,  where  the  doctrine  of  the  superiority 
of  might  over  right  if  only  it  be  directed 
with  discipline,  skill,  efficiency,  had  gath- 
ered vogue  and  pride  till  at  last  in  sheer, 
mad  excess  of  confidence  in  its  own  invin- 
cibility it  had  plunged  a  world  into  woe — 
In  this  land  silent,  unseeable,  intangible, 
imponderable  moral  force  had  risen,  scat- 
tered to  the  winds  all  the  legions,  all  the 
great  guns,  all  the  bludgeons  and  swords 
of  the  rule  of  iron  and  blood,  all  the  para- 
phernalia of  the  invincible  armada  of  ab- 
solutism and  brute  strength  accumulated 
through  the  generations  and  welded  into 
the  most  nearly  perfect,  most  powerful 
militant  machine  the  world  had  ever  seen 
— not  only  scattered  them  upon  the  winds 
172 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

of  oblivion,  but  did  it  without  raising  a 
hand  in  harshness,  without  vengeance, 
without  punishment,  with  only  gentleness. 
There  was  much  sunshine  in  the  land, 
the  search  for  truth  had  found  its  prize, 
Germany  was  at  last  a  nation. 


173 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  TREATY  OF   UNIVERSAL  PEACE 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  German  Na- 
tional Congress  was  to  issue  formal  invi- 
tation to  all  the  belligerent  nations  to  send 
delegates  to  a  peace  conference  to  be  held 
at  The  Hague  a  fortnight  later.  This  in- 
vitation was  of  course  promptly  accepted 
by  all  the  governments,  and  their  repre- 
sentatives met  and  began  their  work  at  the 
same  time  the  German  Congress  was  in 
session  at  Berlin. 

The  first  day  of  the  treaty  conference 
the  representatives  of  France,  England, 
Russia,  Italy  and  their  allies  presented  a 
formal  declaration  on  behalf  of  their  gov- 
ernments and  their  peoples,  in  substance 
as  follows: 

174 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

They  had  never  been  and  were  not  now 
hostile  to  the  German  people;  they  bore 
no  malice  or  hatred;  they  sought  no  pun- 
ishment, only  the  establishment  of  inter- 
national order  and  safety. 

They  had  never  wished  or  sought  the 
crushing  of  Germany,  had  never  contem- 
plated break  of  the  peace  unless  they  were 
themselves  attacked ;  they  had  never  wished 
and  did  not  wish  to  take  over  any  German 
territory,  or  to  interfere  in  even  the  small- 
est degree  with  the  right  of  the  German 
people  to  work  out  their  destiny  in  their 
own  way  at  home  and  abroad. 

They  had  never  sought  and  were  not  now 
seeking  to  place  any  restrictions  whatso- 
ever upon  German  freedom  of  action  with- 
in their  inherent  and  equal  rights  as  an 
equal  member  of  the  society  of  nations, 
either  on  land  or  sea. 

But  they  had  sought,  and  now  demanded 
that  Germany  should  grant  like  freedom 
175 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

and  security  to  all  other  peoples,  that  Ger- 
man military  aggression  should  no  longer 
menace  the  peace  of  the  world  or  the  in- 
tegrity and  security  of  neighboring  states, 
that  while  the  German  people  had  full  right 
to  maintain  at  home  any  political  system 
or  government  they  chose  they  must  aban- 
don forever  all  effort  to  force  that  system 
upon  other  peoples  who  were  unwilling  to 
accept  it  and  preferred  the  system  to  which 
they  were  accustomed. 

The  same  day  the  German  delegates  pre- 
sented the  Address  to  the  World  adopted 
by  the  Congress  at  Berlin  a  few  days  be- 
fore, and  thus  at  the  very  outset  of  the  con- 
ference it  became  apparent  that  the  bellig- 
erents now  stood  for  the  same  thing,  that 
all  had  desired  peace,  that  there  never  had 
been  any  rational  cause  of  war,  that  all 
humanity  were  now  as  one  for  the  sov- 
ereignty of  moral  law  in  all  the  relations 
of  modern  governments  and  peoples. 
176 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

The  following  day  the  representatives  of 
the  new  Germany  proposed  to  restore  all 
territory  of  other  nations  now  held  by  Ger- 
man armies,  to  indemnify  Belgium  for  all 
losses  in  accordance  with  the  findings  of 
an  international  commission  to  be  created 
for  that  purpose,  to  indemnify  all  private 
losses  in  the  war-swept  areas  of  France 
and  Poland  also  to  be  adjudged  by  other 
international  commissions,  and  to  give  the 
people  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine  opportunity 
to  choose  their  future  national  allegiance, 
or  to  set  up  an  independent  principality 
under  the  protection  of  the  signatory  pow- 
ers, through  a  plebiscite. 

Within  a  week  the  Treaty  of  Peace  was 
concluded  and  signed  by  the  representa- 
tives of  all  the  nations,  and  soon  there- 
after was  ratified  by  all  the  home  gov- 
ernments. Its  principal  provisions,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  foregoing  offered  by  Ger- 
many, were  as  follows : 
177 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

No  indemnities  from  nation  to  nation, 
excepting  those  provided  in  the  German 
offer. 

Serbia  restored  to  her  former  status  with 
addition  of  certain  areas  inhabited  by  Ser- 
bians. 

All  Poland,  including  the  area  formerly 
within  Germany,  made  a  self-governing 
state  under  the  protection  of  the  signatory 
powers. 

Turkish  political  power  eliminated  from 
Europe  and  confined  to  a  part  of  Asia- 
Minor  ;  Constantinople  and  European  Tur- 
key placed  under  an  international  govern- 
ment, with  freedom  of  the  straits  to  the 
shipping  of  all  nations  forever;  the  sur- 
viving Armenians  segregated  in  a  self- 
governing  state  under  international  protec- 
tion. 

Otherwise  the  status  quo  ante  helium 
was  restored. 

The  Treaty  of  Peace,  received  through- 
178 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

out  the  world  with  warmest  satisfaction, 
was  followed  by  other  events  of  such  mo- 
mentous character  that  for  a  time  man- 
kind was  fairly  bewildered. 

Greece,  Roumania  and  Bulgaria  deposed 
their  kings  in  bloodless  revolutions  and  set 
tip  democratic  governments  assuring  full 
control  by  the  people  of  all  their  affairs. 

The  Czar  of  Russia  issued  an  ukase  in- 
creasing the  powers  of  the  Duma  to  such 
an  extent  that  Russia  became  a  self-govern- 
ing democracy,  with  a  representative  and 
responsible  ministerial  administration,  an 
hereditary  sovereign  presiding,  like  Eng- 
land. 

The  Duma  was  in  session,  and  the  first 
act  of  the  Russian  parliament  was  to  re- 
lieve the  Jews  of  all  political  disabilities 
and  restrictions  whatsoever. 

The  English  government  at  once  gave 
Ireland  full  home  rule  with  an  inner  local 
autonomy  for  Ulster. 
179 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

The  Turkish  people  reorganized  their 
government  along  democratic  lines,  and 
the  new  government  abolished  all  religious 
persecution  or  discrimination  and  offered 
adequate  indemnification  and  succour  to 
all  Armenians  who  had  suffered  during  the 
war. 


180 


CHAPTEK  XIII 

^THE  FORWAKD  MARCH   OF   CIVILIZATION 

Only  a  few  days  later,  while  the  world 
was  still  rejoicing  over  the  Peace  and  the 
German  Political  Reformation,  there  came 
another  act  of  world  statesmanship  incom- 
parably greater  in  its  effect  upon  the  civil- 
ized peoples  than  the  momentous  events 
which  had  preceded  it  and  prepared  the 
way  for  it. 

The  German  National  Congress  unani- 
mously adopted,  and  the  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment immediately  proclaimed  to  all  the 
nations,  the  following  epoch-making  docu- 
ment: 

We^  the  German  People,  denounce  hu- 
man war  as  a  relic  of  barbarism,  incon- 
sistent with  a  modern  civilization  founded 
upon  moral  force,  a  calamity  to  mankind, 
181 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

as  unnecessary  and  insensate  as  it  is  sav- 
age and  devastating. 

We  declare  the  use  or  the  fear  of  the 
use  of  physical  violence  in  regulating  the 
relations  of  one  nation  with  another  is  as 
violative  of  morality  as  the  use  of  like 
physical  violence  in  the  relations  of  indi- 
vidual man  with  his  neighbor  or  business 
competitor. 

We  denounce  the  system  of  intensely 
selfish  nationalism,  armed  on  land  and  sea, 
made  formidable  by  hysteric  tribalism 
called  patriotism,  inherently  threatening 
neighbors  with  physical  violence,  forcing 
all  neighbors  to  arm  for  self-defense  but 
with  inevitable  danger  that  at  any  moment 
fear,  misunderstanding,  blunder,  passion 
or  crime  may  change  defense  to  assault,  as 
a  survival  of  feudalism  and  the  predatory 
rivalries  of  barbaric  chieftains,  a  scourge 
to  humanity  and  a  disgrace  to  civilized 
mankind. 

182 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

We  declare  that  in  the  present  develop- 
ment of  civilization,  where  morality  reigns 
as  the  law  of  society  within  each  of  the  ad- 
vanced nations,  where  justice  rules,  rights, 
life  and  property  are  protected  by  law  and 
physical  violence  attack  upon  them  is  pun- 
ishable as  crime,  like  morality  must  reign 
between  nations,  appeal  to  physical  vio- 
lence in  the  name  of  nationalism  must  be 
treated  as  crime  on  a  larger  scale  punish- 
able under  society's  international  law,  an 
armed  peace  portending  possible  criminal 
war  must  be  made  as  unnecessary,  unlaw- 
ful and  impossible  between  neighboring 
nations  as  between  neighboring  individuals, 
families,  villages  or  cities. 

We  declare  that  in  the  present  state  of 
civilization  where  the  killing  of  one  man 
for  selfish  purpose  within  a  frontier  is 
murder  in  the  eyes  of  society,  the  killing 
of  a  million  men  for  selfish  purpose  beyond 
a  frontier  must  be  a  million  murders  in 
183 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

the  eyes  of  the  society  of  all  mankind — one 
people  of  the  earth  in  their  duty  to  respect 
the  moral  law  and  their  right  to  receive 
in  return  the  protection  of  that  law,  moral- 
ity being  universal,  limited  by  no  frontiers. 

We  declare  that  while  in  the  present  as 
in  the  past  status  of  human  existence  the 
inhabitants  of  the  earth  must  be  subdivided 
into  groups  for  ethnical,  geographical  and 
social  reasons,  nations  and  nationalism 
must  remain,  all  are  mere  families  of  the 
human  race,  all  rivalries,  jealousies, 
hatreds,  animosities,  hostilities  between 
them,  other  than  peaceful  competition  in 
the  arts,  sciences,  industry,  commerce,  are 
relics  of  barbarism  and  must  be  abolished. 

It  has  been  charged  against  us  German 
people  that  we  more  than  any  other  of 
earth's  families  were  responsible  for  per- 
sistence of  the  traditional  rivalry  with 
threat  of  armed  aggression  in  culmination 
thereof,  because  we  were  the  most  closely 
184 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

knit,  most  perfectly  unified,  most  efficient 
and  energetic  of  the  great  peoples  who  per- 
mitted the  power  of  making  war  to  remain 
within  the  control  of  a  feudal  system  with 
standards  less  moral  than  those  of  the  peo- 
ple, more  to  gain  and  less  to  lose  than  the 
people  by  resort  to  the  desperate  hazard 
of  war,  therefore  more  dangerous  to  the 
peace  of  the  world. 

If  German  unity,  strength,  energy,  in- 
tense nationalism,  combined  with  the  ar- 
chaic form  of  our  government,  have  given 
us  leadership  among  the  peoples  of  earth  in 
military  prowess,  made  us  the  most  feared 
and  most  dangerous  members  of  the  human 
family,  compelled  others  to  arm  in  fear  of 
possible  aggression  from  us  and  thus  re- 
tained in  the  world  the  immoral  and  bar- 
baric system  of  physical  violence  as  the 
ultimate  tribunal  of  international  dispute, 
that  is  a  distinction,  a  leadership,  a  respon- 
sibility which  we  the  German  people  never 
185 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

sought,  which  was  thrust  upon  us  by  cir- 
cumstances, which  we  would  not  keep  if  we 
could,  which  we  now  cast  away,  and  re- 
nounce forever. 

We  have  corrected  the  defect  in  our  or- 
ganization by  establishing  a  German  gov- 
ernment which  shall  henceforth  conform  to 
the  universal  moral  law  in  dealing  with 
other  nations  as  we  the  people  have  always 
wished  to  conform  and  had  been  deceived 
into  the  belief  that  our  government  wished 
to  conform.  It  shall  never  again  be  pos- 
sible for  the  world  to  hold  Germany  re- 
sponsible, directly  or  indirectly,  in  whole 
or  in  part,  for  reversion  of  civilization 
backward  to  the  physical  violence  and 
criminality  of  man's  savage  era. 

Henceforth  the  German  nation  will  never 
encroach,  nor  seek  to  encroach  or  threaten 
to  encroach  upon  the  rights  of  its  neigh- 
bors. 

Maintenance  of  the  system  of  preserving 
186 


THE  GERMAN  EEPUBLIC 

international  peace  by  international  pre- 
paredness to  make  war  is  shown  by  the  ex- 
perience of  mankind  to  be  senseless,  sav- 
age, dangerous,  ruinous. 

It  is  a  senseless  and  savage  system  which 
every  nation  must  of  necessity  preserve  as 
long  as  it  is  preserved  by  its  neighbors. 

It  is  a  senseless  and  savage  system  which 
diverts  a  large  part  of  the  energies  of  man- 
kind from  man's  service  to  man's  harm, 
which  all  mankind  knows  should  be  abol- 
ished, but  which  all  mankind  retains  be- 
cause of  the  absence  of  intelligent  co-opera- 
tive action  by  the  nations. 

The  absence  of  such  co-operative  action 
in  suppression  of  a  common  plague  is  dis- 
graceful to  the  morality  and  the  intelli- 
gence of  modem  civilization,  is  humiliat- 
ing confession  of  a  truly  barbaric  impo- 
tency  to  act  with  others  for  the  good  of  all. 

If  ours  is  in  whole  or  part  the  responsi- 
bility for  survival  of  that  system  and  for 
187 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

the  great  war  whicli  grew  out  of  it,  we 
wish  to  atone  by  taking  action  which  shall 
forever  abolish  the  system  and  forever 
make  human  war  an  impossibility. 

We,  the  German  People,  hereby  propose 
to  the  world : 

We  Stand  Ready,  Immediately,  to  Sign- 
Treaties  OF  Perpetual  Peace  and  Arbi- 
tration OP  ALL  International  Disputes 
Without  Exception  or  Reserve  with  all 
Other  Nations. 

We  Stand  Ready,  Immediately,  in  Con- 
currence With  Other  Nations,  to  Dis- 
band Our  Armies,  Dismantle  Our  Navy, 
Raze  Our  Fortifications,  Convert  Our 
Munition  Works,  Melt  Our  Guns,  Stop 
ALL  Military  Service. 

We  Stand  Ready  to  Join  Other  Na- 
tions IN  Creating  a  Supreme  Court  of  the 
World  to  Decide  all  Appeals  from  Tri- 
bunals OF  Arbitration,  Their  Decision  to 
BE  Pinal. 

We  Stand  Ready  to  Join  Other  Na- 
tions IN  Establishing  Under  the  Abso- 
lute AND  Perpetual  Control  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  World  an  Interna- 
tional Constabulary  Force  on  Land  and 
188 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

Sea  With  Powee  to  Enfokce  the  De- 
cisions OP  the  Coukt  in  Case  of  Need, 
Punish  or  Discipline  Recalcitrants  or 
Offenders  Against  International  Law 
AND  Morality,  Police  the  World  for  Reg- 
ulation OR  Correction  of  Ill-Developed 
OR  Primitive  Peoples  or  Tribes. 

In  Pursuance  of  This  Our  Proposal  to 
Abolish  Forever  Human  War  and  the 
Waste  of  Human  Energy  in  Preparation 
FOR  War  and  to  Set  Up  in  Their  Place 
THE  Rule  of  Universal  Moral  Law  With 
Efficient  Means  of  Preserving  Interna- 
tional Peace,  Order  and  Security — 

We  Hereby  Invite  all  the  Nations  of 
THE  Earth  to  Send  Fully  Empowered 
Delegates  to  an  International  Disarma- 
ment AND  Universal  Peace  Conference  to 
BE  Held  at  The  Hague,  December  Twen- 
ty-Fifth, This  Year, 


188     . 


CHAPTER  XIV 

GEEMANY  AT  LAST  CONQUEKS  THE  WOKLD 

Promulgation  of  the  foregoing  produced 
a  world  effect  which  was  one  of  the  most 
wonderful  things  known  to  the  history  of 
mankind. 

It  was  as  if  the  earth  had  been  swept  by 
a  prolonged,  furious  storm,  all  nature 
stricken,  all  human  spirit  heavy,  downcast. 
Suddenly  the  elements  became  still,  the 
gloom  lifted,  brilliant  sunshine  illumined 
earth  and  sky,  the  world  was  once  more  fit 
and  good  to  live  in. 

Germany's  self-regeneration  and  her 
leadership  of  the  nations  in  the  epoch- 
making  upward  leap  of  civilization  were 
hailed  from  one  end  of  Christendom  to  the 
other  with  indescribable  joy. 

Meetings,  parades,  jubilations,  divine 
190 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

services  with  prayer  and  song  of  gratitude, 
were  held  in  every  country.  For  days  half 
the  human  race  ceased  its  normal  activities 
and  gave  itself  up  wholly  to  expression 
of  its  new  happiness. 

Untold  millions  of  people  caught  up  the 
thought  that  the  German  people,  uncon- 
quering  and  unconquered  in  the  arena  of 
physical  force,  had  now  the  glory  of  a  com- 
plete and  enduring  conquest  of  the  world 
through  inspiring  moral  leadership. 

Germany  was  at  once  with  loud  acclaim 
restored  to  her  former  place  in  the  esteem, 
the  confidence,  the  affections  of  all  the  peo- 
ples of  the  earth.  All  reproaches,  all  bit- 
terness were  wiped  away  in  a  moment. 

A  mighty  wave  of  fraternal  feeling  ran 
through  humanity. 

The  soldiers  of  France,  Germany,  Eng- 
land, Russia,  Austria,  Italy,  all  who  had 
remained  in  peaceful  contact  throughout 
the  period  of  the  armistice  along  the  former 
191 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

lines  of  battle,  now  advanced  weaponless 
beyond  their  fronts,  met  and  commingled 
with  their  former  foe,  embraced  one  an- 
other, called  one  another  brave  brothers, 
and  many  grim  warriors  were  not  ashamed 
to  be  seen  crying  like  women. 

For  hundreds  of  miles  along  the  fronts 
where  fierce  war  had  so  lately  raged,  the 
soldiers  of  all  the  armies  vied  with  another 
in  making  expeditions  in  force  beyond 
their  trenches,  marching  with  flying  flags 
and  bands  of  music  at  their  head  across 
the  shell-scarred  space,  carrying  flowers 
and  placing  them  reverently  upon  the 
graves  of  their  fallen  foemen. 

Along  the  frontiers  the  people  of  thou- 
sands of  cities,  towns  and  villages,  in  spon- 
taneous outburst  of  the  long  fettered  hu- 
man impulse  to  look  upon  all  others  as 
kinsmen,  gave  fetes  and  feasts  in  honor 
of  their  invited  guests  from  across  the 
border. 

192 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

In  America,  where  dwell  so  many  of  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  all  the  lands  late 
at  war,  international  fraternization  was 
universal. 

In  few  places  of  all  Christendom  could 
one  walk  upon  the  streets  or  highways 
where  people  were  to  be  met  without 
seeing,  hearing,  feeling  or  sensing  the 
depth  of  the  joy  that  had  entered  all 
hearts. 

To  hundreds  of  millions  of  war-worn 
men  and  women  of  the  fighting  lands,  long 
heavy  with  the  burden  of  pain,  fear,  doubt, 
loss,  suffering,  the  long  vigil  of  sickened 
soul  and  nerves  strained  near  to  the  break- 
ing point,  it  was  as  if  they  had  been  through 
a  prolonged,  severe  illness  and  now  were 
well  and  strong  again. 

For  three  years  a  German  oligarchy  had 
made  all  the  world  feel  old;  now  the  Ger- 
man people  had  made  all  the  world  feel 
young. 

193 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

No  such  uplifting  of  the  spiritual  na- 
ture of  man  had  ever  happened. 

The  few  comparable  events  of  the  past — 
if  any  preceding  event  could  be  compared 
with  it  in  effect  upon  the  welfare  and  hap- 
piness of  the  human  race — had  become  gen- 
erally known  only  after  the  lapse  of  weeks, 
months,  or  years. 

By  modem  means  of  world  communi- 
cation and  the  millions-multiplied  is- 
sues of  the  modern  press,  virtually  all 
the  peoples  of  all  civilization  were  al- 
most instantly  possessed  of  these  glad 
tidings. 

Thus  it  came  so  much  more  dramatically. 
It  was  spectacular,  convulsive.  All  man- 
kind felt  at  the  same  moment  the  same  in- 
spiration of  joy  over  a  mighty  blessing  fall- 
ing suddenly  out  of  the  sky.  The  great 
momentum  of  mass  psychology  was  never 
before  illustrated  on  a  scale  so  large  and 
intense.  Compared  with  it  the  mass  unity 
194 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

and  enthusiasm  of  the  Germans,  the 
French,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  im- 
pressive and  splendid  as  they  were,  wore 
a  narrower  aspect.  For  now  there  were  no 
clouds  of  cruel  selfishness  upon  the  bright 
scene,  no  specters  of  death  and  destruction 
lurking  in  shadows. 

Intuitively  millions  of  men  compared 
their  present  exaltation  of  spirit,  their  feel- 
ing of  oneness  and  brotherhood  with  all 
mankind,  with  their  mental  state  when  na- 
tionalism, patriotism,  duty  to  country  had 
summoned  them  forth  to  effort  and  to  sac- 
rifice. Fine,  noble,  human  as  they  knew 
that  was,  worthy,  uplifting,  strengthening, 
purifying,  in  contrast  with  that  which  they 
now  felt  it  seemed  to  many  of  them  some- 
what petty,  without  vision  or  depth,  the 
momentary  joy  of  a  child.  This  was  the 
deep-running  content  of  a  fully  developed, 
strong  man  proud  of  the  race  of  which  he 
was  a  part. 

195 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

That  other  spelled  something  primitive 
in  man's  nature,  rivalry  of  brnte  strength, 
struggle,  blow  for  blow,  tribe  against  tribe, 
the  weaker  going  down,  the  stronger  gain- 
ing as  prize  for  his  prowess  the  little  con- 
tent of  the  spearman's  pride  in  a  duty  done 
and  the  greater  discontent  of  civilized 
man's  wonderment  as  to  why  he  had  struck 
the  other  down  and  why  such  striking  and 
struggling  were  among  the  needs  of  his 
civilization. 

This  was  so  much  higher,  so  much  nearer 
the  skies  and  the  infinite,  took  so  much 
hatred,  selfishness,  violence,  danger,  an- 
guish out  of  life,  opened  up  such  possibili- 
ties of  nobler  things,  that  it  seemed  as  if 
mankind  had  been  born  again,  was  a  new 
race  with  a  better  organism,  more  perfect 
functioning,  inhabiting  a  remade  world  in 
which  good  health  and  good  feeling  and 
good  works  instead  of  disease,  suffering, 
hatred,  evil,  were  contagious. 
196 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

Instantly,  too,  all  the  world  realized  the 
true  significance  of  the  event.  War  at  an 
end,  armament  at  an  end,  navies  at  an 
end,  all  the  taxation,  the  wealth,  the 
energy,  the  resources  these  had  ab- 
sorbed, all  this  heavy  burden  on  the 
backs  of  the  people,  released  for  employ- 
ment in  better  ways.  For  it  was  already 
certain  that  universal  disarmament  and 
outlawry  of  war  were  at  hand.  Before 
Germany  had  proposed  it  her  statesmen — 
for  now  that  the  people  ruled  their  land  the 
genius  of  the  gifted  race  was  bringing  forth 
state  leaders  of  the  highest  rank,  vision 
and  quality — knew  that  America,  England, 
France,  Austria,  Italy,  and  other  impor- 
tant nations  would  join.  Their  adherence, 
every  one  at  once  saw,  meant  universal  ac- 
ceptance, meant  that  if  any  power,  great  or 
small,  elected  to  stay  without  the  pale, 
keep  a  national  army  or  navy,  and  employ 
these  physical  forces  in  breaking  the  peace 
197 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

or  other  violation  of  the  moral  law  of  uni- 
versal society,  such  armies  and  navies  were 
sure  to  fall  into  the  clutches  of  the  inter- 
national police. 

In  response  to  this  unfettering  of  such 
vast  resources  hitherto  squandered  in  in- 
struments for  striking  men  down,  there 
passed  through  all  the  peoples  a  wave  of 
redoubled  activity  in  all  works  for  lifting 
men  up.  In  education,  charity,  health,  hy- 
giene, sanitation,  housing,  hospitals,  homes, 
social  co-operation,  industrial  training, 
teaching  the  prevention  of  disease,  com- 
munity uplift,  the  social  canker,  ameliora- 
tion of  the  ills  of  the  defective,  unfortu- 
nate or  perverted,  in  every  field  of  human 
helpfulness  there  was  renewed  and  en- 
larged activity,  more  money  to  use,  more 
men  and  women  to  work  for  humanity. 

From  the  greater  and  more  developed 
nations  more  energy  went  forth  into  the 
byways  and  remote  places  and  out  among 
198 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

the  lowlier,  more  backward  peoples  to  help, 
to  ward  off  contagion  and  disease,  mini- 
mize suffering,  abate  poverty,  educate 
the  ignorant,  save  babies,  save  girls  and 
women,  fight  vice  and  degradation,  scour 
squalor,  encourage  mercifulness  to  man  and 
beast,  tear  down  the  tyranny  of  custom, 
tradition,  habit,  to  raise  the  average  of  hu- 
man worthiness  and  human  happiness. 

Government  vied  with  government  in 
finding  and  putting  in  motion  new  agencies 
of  service,  new  ways  of  promoting  the  wel- 
fare, prosperity  and  contentment  of  their 
peoples.  The  best  of  German  organized 
efficiency  and  discipline,  its  staying  of  the 
hand  of  greed  and  insistence  upon  fair 
wage  and  decent  life  for  all  toilers,  its  pa- 
ternal helpfulness  to  the  infirm,  the  hurt, 
the  aged,  the  luckless  who  needed  help,  its 
skill  in  minimizing  poverty  and  in  making 
the  humblest  home  and  the  poorest  street 
of  the  slums  brighter,  cleaner,  more  livable, 
199 


THE  GEEMAN  REPUBLIC 

its  genius  for  well  ordered  housekeeping, 
for  teaching,  training,  man-building,  found 
imitators  and  followers  everywhere.  Ger- 
man culture  did  indeed  spread  over  the 
earth,  pushed  by  the  helping  hand  and  not 
forced  by  the  mailed  fist. 

The  nations  organized  to  fight  and  con- 
quer the  white  plague,  gave  to  that  noble 
effort  a  part  of  the  energies  they  had  for- 
merly employed  in  maintenance  of  the 
plague  of  physical  violence  and  war.  Ger- 
man science  and  chemistry,  released  from 
the  task  of  compounding  material  for  liquid 
fires  and  noxious  gases  to  thrust  at  their 
neighbors,  invented  a  specific  for  tubercu- 
losis which  a  grateful  world  received  as 
manna  with  which  to  save  untold  millions 
of  human  lives  and  avert  untold  ages  of 
human  woe. 

There  soon  spread  over  the  world  reali- 
zation of  the  revolutionary  and  inspiring 
fact  that  now  no  man  could  have  as  enemy 
200 


THE  GERMAN  REPUBLIC 

anywhere  in  the  world  another  man. 
Henceforth  his  only  enemies  would  be 
those  of  nature  *s  making,  ill-health,  dis- 
ease, contagion,  poverty,  plague,  hurtful 
habit,  moral  and  physical  weakness,  and 
that  all  mankind  would  be  his  friend  and 
brother  in  fighting  these. 

The  millennium  had  not  come.  Nature's 
law  of  struggle,  survival  of  the  fittest,  was 
not  repealed.  But  mankind  had  reached 
the  stage  of  spiritual  growth  where  he  was 
determined  to  soften  as  much  as  lay  in  his 
power  the  austerity  of  that  fundamental 
law,  play  the  game  like  a  man  not  like  a 
savage,  be  no  longer  parasite  or  wild  beast, 
live  but  help  to  live,  the  strong  to  protect 
not  prey  upon  the  weak.  There  were  even 
dreams,  not  unrealizable  in  this  regener- 
ated race,  of  the  quick  coming  of  the  day 
when  individual  like  governmental  energies 
would  be  consecrated  to  human  service, 
when  gluttony  for  needless  and  selfishly 
201 


THE  GEEMAN  EEPUBLIC 

used  wealth  would  be  as  much  taboo  as 
swinish  gluttony  for  excess  of  food  and 
drink. 

Pain  is  not  banished  from  the  world,  but 
pleasure  predominates,  and  all  society  co- 
operates its  activities  in  minimizing  the 
one  and  augmenting  the  other. 

The  millennium  had  not  come.  But  the 
open,  glassy,  accusing  eyes  of  women  and 
children  floating  out  to  the  Atlantic  from 
the  Lusitania's  shattered  hull,  countless 
new  graves  dotting  the  European  ravines 
and  hillsides,  myriads  of  human  hearts 
sore  with  suffering,  bereavement,  wreck, 
ruin,  throughout  the  years  of  man's  mad- 
ness, had  not  after  all  been  in  vain. 

Out  of  the  darkness,  the  travail,  the 
agony,  the  crime,  the  seeming  reversion  of 
civilization  to  savagery,  had  come  a  much 
brighter  and  better  world. 

THE   END. 

202 


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